Social Studies, 7-12, and Citizenship Education

Social Studies

This certification is open to students majoring in history, political science, economics, sociology, Growth and Structure of Cities, anthropology, or psychology. Some interdisciplinary independent majors are accepted as well. Students must complete the following requirements, taking at least four courses outside their major in the other social sciences. In Pennsylvania, teachers with this certification are able to teach a wide range of social studies courses, including electives in anthropology, sociology, philosophy, and psychology.

• At least two history courses, with a balance of American and world history.
• At least one political science course that addresses American politics and international relations. For example, POLS H/B121 (American Politics) and POLS B141 or H151(International Politics).

• A course that addresses geographic concepts, such as a regionally-conceived introductory history course, such as "The History of Western Civilization," "Global History," "Introduction to African Civilizations," "Postcards from the Atlantic World," or a course such as HIST H269 (The History of Mapping and Mapping History) or HIST H253 (History of the US Built Environment).

• An economics course that focuses on economic concepts and systems, local, state, and national commerce, and international trade and global economies (both micro and macroeconomics), such as ECON B/H105 (Introduction to Economics).
• Coursework that addresses anthropology (the origins of human culture and cultural change, rituals and kinship) and sociological concepts (social organization, demography, race, gender, and ethnicity), such as ANTH B102 or ANTH H104 and SOCL B102 or SOCL H155.

Students meet the State's psychology standard for social studies teachers by taking PSYC B203 (Educational Psychology), one of the Education Minor-Teacher Certification Track required courses.

Citizenship Education

Students must major in history, political science, or economics and take at least four courses outside of their major distributed in the other two areas. In fulfilling these requirements, students must include in their course programs the history, political science, economics, and geographic concepts course requirements stated above for Social Studies certification. They do not need to meet the anthropology or sociology requirements. In Pennsylvania, teachers with a Citizenship Education certification cannot teach electives in anthropology, sociology, or psychology.