Secondary education endorsement restored for social studies option
Since 2001, students who wanted to earn a secondary education degree in preparation
to becoming a high school history teacher couldn't obtain the endorsement at
Iowa State.
The same was true for students who wanted to be high school government teachers.
That will change beginning in the fall of 2007 as Iowa State students may once
again pursue teacher certification in secondary social studies.
The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, along with the College of Human Sciences,
has redesigned the licensure program to prepare secondary social studies teachers
who possess a strong background in U.S. and world history.
"The program will also allow students the option to pursue studies in social
science disciplines such as political science, anthropology, sociology, economics
and psychology," said Charles Dobbs, professor and chair of the Department
of History.
"The program will help students gain a deep and broad understanding of
significant global/international issues from contemporary and historical perspectives."
The revitalized program requires undergraduates to major in history or political
science and minor either in history or one of the social science disciplines.
Students who choose to major in history will leave the program with teaching
endorsements in U.S. history, world history and a social science area of choice.
Those students who major in political science will have teaching endorsements
in American government and either U.S. or world history.
The program also requires that students complete courses in educational theory
and methodology offered by the Department of Curriculum and Instruction in the
College of Human Sciences.
The social science departments are housed in the College of Liberal Arts and
Sciences. The Department of History is serving as the lead program within the
social sciences academic units.
Students that enter the program will have two advisers - one each for the history/social
sciences component and another for the teacher education/licensure aspects.
In addition, a new faculty position will be added in the Department of Curriculum
and Instruction. That individual will teach history and social studies pedagogical
methods courses.
"Iowa faces a shortage of government and history teachers at the high school
level in the coming years," Dobbs said. "That shortage of teachers
and what we perceive as a demand for the product has brought the program back."
Dobbs says the new major will undergo a three-year initial trial.
"We're all betting that there are students out there that want this major,"
he said.
Around LAS
October 30 to November 12, 2006