People from around the world and across the country come to Martha’s Vineyard to spend a long weekend, enjoy a summer, or build a life. Many Island residents now hail from one country in particular, Brazil. Yet most of us know little about this South American country. History teacher Elaine Weintraub says this is true even of many of her Brazilian students.

“We haven’t looked at it as a gift we have, this access to this interesting culture and history,” said Ms. Weintraub, who teaches at the Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School. “Brazil is predicted to be one of the three major countries of the 21st century, according to Time Magazine ... It’s supposed to be a very major player in the world, and we don’t know much about it.”

But not for long. Beginning next year, the high school will offer a course on the culture and history of Brazil. An elective for junior and senior students, the course will be part of a new global history curriculum. “This was an opportunity to really look at what we do teach, and why we teach it, and how relevant it is,” said Ms. Weintraub.

On Monday Ms. Weintraub hosted Harvard professor and native Brazilian Dr. Clemence Jouet-Pastre to speak to her global advisory group, a group of high school and middle school teachers who have been working together for more than a year to find ways to bring cultural histories from around the world to Island students.

“Every major change and major effort is always achieved by a few people,” said Ms. Weintraub. “We’re not required to do it, we do it because we want to,” she said of the global advisory group.

Ms. Jouet-Pastre, who runs the Portuguese program at Harvard, presented the group with a brief history of Brazil. She explained that the interest in the Portuguese language, spoken in Brazil, and in Brazilian culture generally is growing. At Harvard, enrollment in classes that teach Brazilian history and incorporate Portuguese are “doubling and tripling.” Boston University and Tufts University recently have added Portuguese programs to their curriculum.

Ms. Jouet-Pastre gave the group the syllabus for her Brazilian culture and history class to use as a guideline when they design the curriculum for next year’s classes. “Harvard has been a wonderful kind of connection for us,” Ms. Weintraub said. “They’ve come down and worked with us, and part of it is to show us materials, and show us access to those materials, to suggest strategies.”

The original suggestion for a course in Brazilian history came from a student who was born in Brazil. He had an interest in learning more about his native country, but no access to an in-depth history class on it. “Many of our Brazilians came here when they were seven years old, eight years old, nine years old,” said Ms. Weintraub. “So they never learned the academic language of their mother country, because they were little kids.

“In their hearts, they know Brazil, they know it culturally through their families, through visits home, through all of that, but they don’t know it in that academic sense,” she said.

The student who made the suggestion will have graduated by the time the course is added next year, but Ms. Weintraub has high hopes for the impact it will have on students, both in teaching native Brazilians more about their heritage and in bridging the gap between Brazilian students and those who were born in this country.

“In my best-case scenario, I would love to see it as a popular class taken by students and their friends whether they be Brazilian or not be Brazilian,” she said. “I see it as something important for the Brazilian community that’s just as important for the Anglo community.”