EIU History-Teacher Licensure

About the Program

History with Teacher Licensure in Social Science students take a core of 33 hours in History courses and are an integral part of the history department. They also take two methods courses within the department, a one-credit Introduction to Teaching Social Studies (SOS 2400) and a three-credit upper-level Teaching Middle Level and Secondary Social Studies (SOS 3400).  Illinois provides only one license for all secondary social studies, and our majors also take courses in the other areas of social studies: economics, geography, political science, psychology and sociology-anthropology. Finally, History with Teacher Licensure in Social Science majors enroll in a sequence of professional education courses that culminates in a semester-long student teaching experience.

Our program gives students a firm foundation in all the social studies and the ability to specialize in history and other disciplines. Students concentrate in history, equipping themselves to teach the state-mandated U.S. history course as well as world and other history courses. Students take coursework in all the other social science field and leave prepared to teach the state-mandated Civics course and other electives. Students can select and customize the program to earn an endorsement in a second social studies area (such as political science, geography, or psychology), or they can use the two electives built into the program to take a course such as the introductory course for Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies or Africana Studies and work towards an interdisciplinary minor.

Students are out in classrooms and becoming professionals from the beginning of their time here. Clinical experiences begin as early as your first semester, and students slowly build towards teaching their own lessons in area schools prior to student teaching. Students are mentored in engaging in professional development through participation in our yearly conference for high school social studies teachers, through our work with social studies educational organizations, and through experiences embedded into the program. In spring 2019, for example, social studies methods students planned and hosted a Civic Engagement forum for 80 students from 8 high schools around the state.

We prepare teachers who will be changemakers in the 21st century world. High school social studies teachers: broaden student knowledge of other cultures and peoples and places (history, geography); help students better understand the choices we make – individually (psychology), as a community (sociology), as a democracy (civics), and as a country and world (history); equip students with news literacy and critical reading skills; give students the gift – and the challenge – of exploring our past; equip students for active citizenship and meaningful civic participation; and use the classroom and relationships with students to build a better world. In short: this is not the social studies featured in Ferris Bueller's Day Off or on Jeopardy!  

Our students are entering the job market well-prepared, well connected, and at the right time. From our connections to Chicago districts to work with our Rural Schools Partnership, EIU works to connect students to future employers from the get-go. Both the College of Education and Career Services offer sessions specifically aimed at teaching candidates to prepare them for the job market, and students can attend an Education Job Fair and Rural Schools Networking nights right here on campus. Finally, there are jobs to be had! The COE reports an overall 96% plus placement rate six months out from graduation, and our students are getting jobs in social studies faster than they have in decades.

Even if a student decides not to teach, the regular History BA qualifies them for a host of career options. Faculty work throughout our program and in our senior capstone to showcase the many careers that students can have with a history degree, and we host a History Careers Day for majors and prospective students every February. Find out more at https://www.eiu.edu/history/careers.php.