History teacher certification

The College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences encourages students to explore teaching at the secondary level as a career option. The student’s academic advisor in the Dean’s Office for Undergraduates and Student Advising in GAB, Room 220, can assist students with specific requirements for teacher certification in history. Upon completion of this program, students will be prepared to sit for the certification examinations in history.

All state certification requirements and information on required examinations are available on the web site of the State Board for Educator Certification (SBEC), www.tea.state.tx.us.

Required courses

Upper-level history courses, 21 hours

21 semester hours of advanced work (3000- to 4000-level), with three courses in a single geographic area, at least one course in each of the remaining geographic areas, and two courses in a single theme.

Each student will choose a geographic focus area for his or her advanced course work by taking at least three courses in one of three groups:

United States;
Europe; or
Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East.

Students must take at least one course from the other two geographic areas outside of their focus.

Each student will also select one of the following themes by taking two courses within that theme:

culture and everyday life;
empires and borderlands;
food and the body;
gender and sexuality;
mass violence and atrocities;
politics, policy and economics;
premodern Europe and the Mediterranean;
race and ethnicity;
Texas, the South and the West; and
war, military and society.

Students must finish a history course with a grade of C or better for it to count toward the BA in history with secondary education certification.

Education courses, 21 hours

Additional requirements

See History, BA for additional course work and GPA requirements.

Students meet all GPA requirements to apply for state certification. In order to enroll for the first required education course, the student must make application to the certification program in the College of Education in Matthews Hall, Room 105.