Urban Teachers Teacher Preparation in Secondary Social Studies

Master of Education

You will gain research-based and practical knowledge of teaching through extensive field experience and coursework during this two-year program that is designed to develop knowledge, skills, and dispositions to support teaching and learning in linguistically and culturally diverse urban settings. Graduates of the program will be prepared to teach middle and high school students in grades 7-12.

This program merges the M.Ed. in Social Studies Education and meets the requirements for being recommended for teacher certification by the Texas Education Agency. To learn more, please contact Anthony Brown, the program advisor. 

You will earn:

  • A master’s degree (M.Ed.)
  • English as a Second Language (ESL) endorsement

Total minimum hours: 42 hours (including 6 hours of certification coursework)

Basic Course Requirements (9 hours)

Curriculum Studies (3 hours)

  • EDC 385G  Historical Perspectives on Curriculum

Research Methods (3 hours)

  • EDC 380R  Educational Research and Design

Foundations (3 hours)

  • EDC 390T  Multicultural Education
  • EDC 385G  Advanced Multicultural Curriculum
  • EDC 385G  Foundations of Curriculum
  • EDC 385G  Cultural Knowledge of Teachers and Teaching

Social Studies Specialization (minimum: 9 hours)

Work with your advisor to select the best courses to help you fulfill this requirement: 

  • EDC 382E  Teaching Elementary School Subject- Social Studies
  • EDC 382S  Teaching Secondary School Subjects: Social Studies
  • EDC 385G  Current Issues Teaching the Social Studies
  • EDC 385G  History of the Social Studies
  • EDC 390T  Humanities and Literacy in Social Education
  • EDC 390T  Improving Social Studies Education
  • EDC 390T  Institutes in Instruction: Critical Issues in Social Education
  • EDC 396   Seminar: Social Studies Education
  • EDC 384: Research in Elementary Social Studies 
  • EDC 385G: Perspectives on Democratic and Citizenship Education 
  • EDC 382E: Social Studies Education: Issues and Research in the Field

Courses outside the Department (minimum: 6 hours)

Coursework from the following sections may fulfill this requirement:

Special Education graduate course

  • SED 380  Cross-Cultural Interactions in Multicultural Special Education
  • SED 380  Cultural & Linguistic Diversity in Special Education

*Outside department electives require advisor approval

Additional Requirements

Minimum 12 hours including:

  • EDC 370S  Advanced Methods in Social Studies
  • EDC 385G  Second Language Acquisition
  • EDC 382S  Methods of Teaching ESL
  • EDC 371S  Secondary Social Student Teaching Seminar

Additional Certification Coursework not included within the Master of Education (6 hours)

  • EDC 651S  Secondary School Teaching Practicum: Social Studies

All programs must include at least six semester hours outside the Department of Curriculum and Instruction. Up to nine hours of upper-division undergraduate coursework may be counted toward the M.Ed. (distributed as follows: six hours in Curriculum and Instruction and three hours outside C&I, or three hours in C&I and six hours outside C&I). Up to six hours of upper-division undergraduate coursework may be counted toward the M.Ed.

These programs require fieldwork in area schools, and to undertake that fieldwork, school districts require that university students each pass a criminal background check. If a student does not pass the criminal background check, she or he will be unable to complete the required work of the program, and any offer of admission will be canceled.

Once you successfully complete all of the steps to become a teacher, including passing the relevant exams approved by the Texas Education Agency, you may be recommended for certification to the TEA by our certification officer. Be sure to reference the Certification Checklist on the Field Experiences wiki for additional information.

Please see the Graduate School Catalog.