Basic Objectives
The History Education Major and Minor at Saginaw Valley State University are designed to provide prospective teachers with a firm grounding in history as an academic discipline in preparation for a career in education. Such a grounding includes substantial and diverse content knowledge in American, European and World History, analytical and interpretive skills, the writing and evaluation of historical argumentation, and the instructional skills needed to teach history on the secondary school level. The curriculum summarized below is directly aligned with the Michigan State Board of Education’s 2009 Standards and Benchmarks for History and reflects substantial coordination between the Departments of History and Teacher Education.
The history major is available to students desiring to teach at the middle (grades 5 to 9) or high school level (grades 7 to 12). It requires a double major with one of the education majors described in the College of Education section.
Teacher Education Secondary: Grades 5 to 12
Admission to the major does not constitute admission to the College of Education.
Admission to the College of Education is a multi-step process and information on that process can be found at the link below.
Teacher Education: Policies And Procedures
Program Description
Core courses: 27 credits
Elective courses: 21 credits
Total credits in content major = 48
All history courses teach students to formulate historical questions and to construct narratives and interpretations. Issues of diversity, including race, ethnicity, class, and gender are not only addressed in individual classes on both the survey and upper-division level, but also by the structure of the program which requires that students take courses across three regional/global content categories.
