Majoring in History Education: Four Things You Need to Know

 

1. Social Studies Education is important, rewarding work - and KSU’s program is top-notch.

The purpose of social studies is to train young people to be good citizens, to be people who make informed and reasoned decisions for the public good in an interdependent world. The social studies form the default citizenship curriculum in American schools, and citizenship education has never been more important than it is right now.

KSU is one of the top teacher producing schools in the state, and HIED (History Education) has a high job placement rate and strong reputation in area schools. Our teacher candidates have had a 100 percent pass rate on licensure exams. Our HIED program will prepare you to navigate the complex educational profession by getting you ready for certification, concentrating on real-world applications of theory, and supporting you with experienced advisors throughout your education. Our faculty collectively have decades of experience in 6–12 education, and have published research in top journals in history and education.

Our program is designed to prepare teachers of adolescents, largely at the secondary school level. It leads to grades 6 - 12 teacher certification in the teaching field of history for the state of Georgia. Candidates complete the equivalent of a major in history and a second major in pedagogical studies. Candidates concentrate in history, as this is the principal social science discipline in the secondary education curriculum, and take additional course work in several other social science disciplines as part of their cross-disciplinary teaching field preparation.

The B.S. in History Education is fully accredited by Georgia’s Professional Standards Commission for teacher certification.

2. Graduating in four years is tough, but it can be done if you plan ahead.

Our program is 120 credit hours, which if you divide by 4, is 30 hours a year, or 15 hours a semester. Most classes are 3 credit hours, so that’s 5 classes a semester.

BUT: in the final year of the HIED major, students take only 21 to 24 hours. What that means is that for most students, graduating in four years requires some summer classes and/or 18-hour semesters. You can't graduate in four years if you take 12 hours per semester and 6 hours during the summers.

Here’s an example 4-year program map.

If you want to graduate in 4 years, therefore, we recommend the following:

Save one of your general education classes or EDUC 2130 for your final semester. It will need to be an online class, because you’ll be full time in your field experience.
Plan to take 15 hours a semester and at least 2 summer sessions, or 18 hours a semester and 1 summer session.

3. Your final two years in the program are intense and somewhat inflexible.

The Preservice Sequence

The preservice sequence includes a set of classes you take in order, as a cohort: HIST 3271, HIST 4488, HIED 4550/HIED 4560/INED 3300, HIED 4660/INED 4431.

Fall before your final year:

  • HIST 3271 (+ 30 hour middle school internship)
  • Spring before your final year:
  • HIST 4488 (+ 30 hour high school internship)

Fall of your final year:

  • HIED 4550 (Methods, 3 hours, 1 day a week, face to face)
  • HIED 4560 (YCE I, 6 hours, 4 hours/day in the field)
  • INED 3300 (3 hours, online)

Spring of your final year:

  • HIED 4660 (YCE II, 6 hours, 8 hours/day in the field)
  • INED 4431 (3 hours, online)

The year before your final year, you’ll take HIST 3271, Introduction to History Education, in the fall, and HIST 4488, Approaches to World History, in the spring. At least one of those courses will include a 45-hour middle school field experience (roughly 3 hours a week), typically tutoring in the AVID program on Tuesday or Thursday at a partner middle school.

The good news about this “cohort model” is that you move through these 4 semesters in sequence, which means we can introduce and reinforce skills and concepts in an orderly way, and also that you may develop real camaraderie and trust with your fellow cohort members — which can be a source of strength and sanity in the challenges presented by YCE I and II.

The bad news is that it is somewhat inflexible. HIST 3271 and HIED 4550/4560 are only offered in the fall; HIST 4488 and HIED 4660 are only offered in the spring. Our candidates graduate in the spring, with very few exceptions. If you miss HIST 3271, you’ll have to wait another year before starting the preservice sequence.

The Yearlong Clinical Experience

The defining experience of your final year is the “Yearlong Clinical Experience” – or what some programs call “student teaching.” In the fall (YCE I, HIED 4560), you’ll be in your field placement for at least 4 hours per day, starting with pre-planning in late July. In the spring, you will stay in the same field placement full time, at least 8 hours per day. In YCE I you typically take over the equivalent of one block-schedule (90 minute) class sometime in September. In YCE II, you take over the entire schedule of your collaborating teacher (CT), typically 3 or more block-schedule classes, which might include multiple subject areas (for instance, World Geography and Current Events, or Economics and Government).

Our advice:
  • Plan ahead programmatically so that you can take HIST 3271 in the fall, two years before you intend to graduate (e.g. if you intend to graduate in spring 2030, you should take HIST 3271 in fall 2018).
  • Plan ahead financially so that you don’t have to work in your final year, or at least that you can cut back on hours. Many of our candidates end up quitting their jobs or cutting back on hours in their final year in order to better deal with the demands of the field experience.

4. Admission to the program and advisement are complex, so communicate early and often.

Admission to Teacher Education

When you enter KSU, either as a first year student or a transfer, you’ll sign up as a HIED-Interest major. As a HIED-Interest major, while you take your your general education courses, you will be advised by someone in the Bagwell College of Education (BCOE) who will help you select General Education courses and get ready for admission to the BCOE.

In order to be admitted to the BCOE, you must have completed a series of requirements related to coursework, GPA, GaPSC registration, and entrance exams.

HIST 3271 Application

Once you are admitted to BCOE, your major will be changed to BS in History Education. 

In order to start your preservice sequence in HIED, you must submit your application to BCOE by the time summer semester grades are due, in late July. However, because we need to make sure we have space in our classes, you must notify us of your intent to start the preservice sequence by completing the application for the preservice sequence by March 10 of the year you intend to take HIST 3271.

You will be assigned an advisor in the HIED program (Drs. Conner, McGovern, Okie, Traille, or Wynn). This advisor assignment is not an automatic process, though, so if you are admitted to BCOE but you don’t see a new advisor in Owl Express/Degreeworks, send an email to the HIED Program Coordinator to get that sorted out.

HIST 3100 and the Research Seminar

As a HIED major, you’ll take 5 upper-level (3000 or 4000-level) elective history electives in nonwestern (2 courses), European (2 courses), and United States (2 courses). One of these courses must be a research seminar, either HIST 4495 (US), 4496 (Europe), 4497 (nonwestern), or 4498 (world). Research seminars are taught by different professors and deal with different topics each semester (in Spring 2022, for instance, the research seminars were American Revolution, the Civil War home front, Revolutions, the Ottoman Empire, and the history of information). A few things you should know: 

  • Registering for a research seminar requires an override, which you can request using the History Department Override Request Form.
  • Research seminars are not offered in the summer, or online. They must be taken as part of your face-to-face load during spring or fall semester, and they cannot be completed in your final year (YCE I or II).
  • HIST 3100, Historical Methods, is a prerequisite for a research seminar. You have to have taken it before you can start a research seminar.
Our advice: 

Take HIST 3100 early, in your second year if you can, but by the fall of your second-to-last year at the latest (along with HIST 3271)
Take a US, nonwestern, or world research seminar in order to maximize geographical coverage for your teaching content.

Glossary

  • BCOE: Bagwell College of Education
  • CEPP: Clinical Experiences, Placements, and Partnerships
  • CAAR: Candidate Attitudes Assessment Rubric
  • CAPS: Candidate Assessment on Performance Standards
  • CT: Collaborating Teacher
  • GaPSC: Georgia Professional Standards Commission
  • HIED: History Education
  • NCSS: National Council for Social Studies
  • RCHSS: Radow College of the Humanities and Social Sciences
  • OSF: Observation Summary Form
  • US: University Supervisor
  • YCE: Yearlong Clinical Experience