2008-2009 cohort
Content area preadmission course requirements
Master of education/initial licensure in social studies education
Content area courses are prerequisites that must be completed or in progress at the time of M.Ed./ILP program admission.
Courses in the content area are required to meet the Standards of Effective Practice for Teachers (SEPT) and content standards adopted in 1998 by the Minnesota Board of Teaching: "The teacher understands the central concepts, tools of inquiry, and structures of the discipline(s) he or she teaches and can create learning experiences that make these aspects of subject matter meaningful for students."
Contact Student Services to meet with an adviser, who will assess and recommend courses that fulfill this requirement.
Nine areas of concentration are offered for teaching licensure in grades 5-12 social studies. Before applying to this master of education (M.Ed.)/initial licensure program, applicants must complete content area coursework from one concentration area and supporting fields in the following list. The courses listed are recommended; other courses may be substituted with the approval of a Student Services adviser at the time of transcript review.
Social studies concentration areas
1. Anthropology (28-semester credit minimum)
- Introduction to social and cultural anthropology—ANTH 1003W
- Approaches to anthropology—ANTH 3001
- Human institutions—ANTH 3005
- Biological/physical anthropology—ANTH 3310 or 1001
- Applied anthropology—ANTH 4031
2. Economics (28-semester credit minimum)
- Principles of microeconomics—ECON 1101
- Principles of macroeconomics—ECON 1102
- Intermediate microeconomics—ECON 3101
- Intermediate macroeconomics—ECON 3102
- Industrial organization—ECON 3601
- Public finance or money and banking—ECON 3701
- Economic development—ECON 4331W
- Economics electives
3. Geography (28-semester credit minimum)
- Human geography—GEOG 1301W or GEOG 1372
- Geographical inquiry—GEOG 4001
- Urban geography—GEOG 3371W
- Environmental systems—GEOG 3401
- Geographic techniques—GEOG 3511 or GEOG 3561
- Economic geography—GEOG 5385 or GEOG 3331
- Regional course
4. History (28-semester credit minimum)
- Western civilization sequence—HIST 1026 or HIST 1031W plus HIST 1027 or HIST 1032W
- U.S. history—HIST 1031W or HIST 1307 plus HIST 1302W or HIST 1308
- Methods of historical research—HIST 5011 or senior project
- Non-Western history
- History electives
5. Political science (28-semester credit minimum)
- U.S. government and politics—POL 1001
- World politics—POL 1025
or international relations—POL 3835 - Twenty-one (21) credits of 3xxx- and 5xxx-level political
science courses, including one in each of the following areas:
- Political theory—POL 1201
- Quantitative analysis—POL 3085
- American governmental system
- Comparative government and politics
- Political science electives
- Politics and behavior
6. Psychology (28-semester credit minimum)
- Adolescent psychology—CPSY 4303
- Research methods—PSY 3001W or PSY 2801
- Introduction to psychology of learning—PSY 3011
- Introduction to personality—PSY 3101
or introduction to abnormal psychology—PSY 3604 - Psychology of individual differences—PSY 3135
- Introduction to social psychology—PSY 3201
- Psychology electives
7. Sociology (28-semester credit minimum)
- Introduction to sociology—SOC 1001
- Criminology and deviance—SOC 3101 or 3102
- Social organization—SOC 3411W
- Sociological research methods—SOC 3801W
- Basic social statistics—SOC 3811
- Historical/comparative sociology
- Social change/movement
- Sociology electives
8. American studies (28-semester credit minimum)
Required courses (16-credit minimum)
- Popular arts and public life—AMST 1001 or AMST 1002
- Comparative genders and sexuality—AMST 1401
- America’s diverse cultures—AMST 3113W
- Gender, sexuality, and politics in America—AMST 4101
- Workers and consumers in the global economy—AMST 4301
Recommended electives (12-credit minimum)
- AMST 3114
- AMST 3252W
- AMST 3253W
9. Broad field social studies (33-semester credit minimum)
- 24 credits from one of the previous seven concentration areas
- Three courses (9-12 credits) from a second concentration area
Supporting fields
Applicants must take a course within each of the areas listed below (see specific requirements for U.S. history and U.S. political science), unless a course has already been taken as part of their concentration.
- Anthropology
- American Indian studies—AMIN 1001
- Economics
- Geography
- Psychology—PSY 1001
- Sociology
- U.S. history—HIST 1301W or HIST 1307 plus HIST 1302W or HIST 1308
- U.S. political science—POL 1001: American Government and Politics
Revised May 2008