Advising Suggestions for History BA Degree

These suggestions are for Non-Transfer Students seeking secondary education certification.

1) General
First, read all the instructions for the regular Bachelor of Arts degree in History. With the exception of the items noted below, all the requirements listed there apply to students seeking teacher certification. Please note that the Department of History offers Bachelor of Arts degrees only, and not a Bachelor of Science. Therefore, if you are seeking teaching certification for a history major, you must complete all the requirements for the BA degree including 12 semester hours of a foreign language and an acceptable liberal arts minor.

2) General Education Requirements
General education requirements for those seeking teacher certification are exactly the same as those for the regular BA with two exceptions:

• The education program has what is termed an "Enhanced General Education Requirement" consisting of 12 hours of coursework. This 12 hours includes GEOG 2000, an option between COMM 2200 or COMM 4000, and six hours of General Studies electives. Please notice that GEOG 2000 and COMM 2200 fit in as options under the regular general education requirements anyway (Section III B and I B respectively–see pages 65-66 of the 2009-2011 catalog). Therefore, we advise you to take both of these courses. They will fulfill III B and I B of the regular requirements AND take care of half of the "Enhanced General Education Requirement." All you will then need to do is take six hours (2 classes) of any electives in the General Studies program (see pages 64-67 of the 2009-2011 catalog), and you will round out this requirement. Please attempt to complete this before your first semester of your junior year.
• Also required for teacher certification is a 12 hour "Emphasis Required for Licensure." This consists of 12 hours in either Political Science, Geography or Economics. Please note, this does NOT mean 12 hours randomly chosen from the three subjects. It means 12 hours of Political Science courses, 12 hours of Geography courses, or 12 hours of Economics courses. Please also note that if you minor in any one of these three disciplines, the minor automatically fulfills the requirement for the "Emphasis."

3) World Civilization (1110/1120)
Everything included in the history major of 36 hours for the regular BA degree applies to the degree for teacher certification, with one exception. You cannot apply the Western Civilization (1010/1020) sequence towards your history major (though you certainly can apply it towards the six hours of general studies electives noted above in 2a). In order to be certified to teach with a History major, you must take the World Civilization sequence (1110/1120).

4) Second Minor
In the regular BA degree, you are required to take either 24 hours worth of electives or a second minor (in addition to the first minor, which must be an acceptable liberal arts minor). Students seeking secondary education certification replace their second minor with a curriculum structured by the College of Education (see page 161-164 in the 2009-2011 catalog).

We simply insist that those individuals seeking licensure link up as soon as possible with the faculty advisor in Educational Leadership (the department that handles students in secondary education). Students seeking licensure are required to take certain examinations at different stages in their candidacy, take their education courses in a certain specific order, and expressly apply to be admitted to the teacher education program. Be advised that the History Department in no way controls, nor can we affect, the specific requirements of the teacher education program. If you make a mistake, we cannot fix it, nor will we fix it. You simply need to be working with the proper advisors in Educational Leadership from the beginning.

Please also be advised of one very significant fact!!!! Requirements for a BA degree with a History major are linked expressly to the catalog that applied during the academic year you entered MTSU. This means that if you began here as a freshman in the Fall of 2009, the degree requirements outlined in the 2009-2011 catalog apply to you so long as you remain a continuing student in good standing. Even if the Department makes wholesale changes to our major requirements during your junior year, you would in no way be bound to meet the new altered regulations. Put simply, you’re bound by the requirements that were in force when you entered the university.

Requirements for teacher licensure, however, are not tied to this structure. Teacher licensure regulations are set by the state, and can be altered at any time, AND the alterations may be applied to any student no matter where they are in their program (ex., last semester of your senior year). For this reason, it is absolutely essential that you keep in close contact with the advisors in Educational Leadership. We in the History Department cannot do anything about licensure requirements. We do not control or affect them in any way. You must keep your own tabs on your education minor by keeping in touch with the individuals in Jones Hall.

These suggestions are for Transfer Students seeking secondary education certification.

Advising Suggestions
All the requirements for the BA degree with a History major apply to transfer students. The critical issue for you, though, is determining what courses you can count from your previous school(s) towards your degree here. The university performs a transfer audit within the first semester (or earlier) of your shift to MTSU. In effect, your transcript from your previous school(s) will be incorporated into your transcript here. As for determining exactly which courses previously taken will be allowed to count for specific courses and requirements here, the university Records Office determines that when your transcript is transferred. It is essential that during this process you meet with the Undergraduate Director in the History department and get placed with a permanent advisor. We need to go over your previous record, and double-check what has been accepted (the main office may have misidentified a course or two). It makes absolutely no sense to take a course to fulfill an MTSU requirement when a course from your previous school could well be counted for it. It makes just as little sense to assume that certain courses have been accepted for requirements here when they have not. This is an issue that simply MUST be sorted out during the first semester you are here. Do not wait!!!!! Handle the problem at the front end. We simply cannot and will not save you during your last semester of your senior year, when you could have remedied the problem during your first semester at MTSU.

See the MTSU Undergraduate Catalog for additional information.