Program Description

The Masters program in Social Studies Education leads to New York State certification for grades 7-12. Staffed by professional historians and veteran social studies teachers, the program emphasizes content mastery in U.S. and global history and geography as well as teaching methods that provoke critical thought and inquiry-based learning. Extensive school-based fieldwork is required prior to student teaching, both to familiarize students with urban educational environments and to enable them to develop classroom strategies that are innovative and appropriate for teaching today's students. The pivotal experience of the program is a semester of student teaching at the secondary and middle school levels, where M.A. students -- mentored by their cooperating teachers, NYU field supervisors and methods teachers -- are given responsibility for teaching in the New York City public schools.

Admission Requirements

All students admitted to the Masters program in Social Studies Education will have completed a bachelor's degree with a major in one of the following areas: history, geography, economics, or political science/government. In addition, students must have completed at least a total of 15 semester hours of study in the history and geography of the U.S. and the world (the remaining 6 credit hours will be taken as part of our program), in addition to 3 semester hours in the study of politics, 3 semester hours in the study of economics, and an additional 3 semester hours in one of the social studies disciplines.

In certain instances, the program will accept students who have not satisfied all of the above requirements. In these cases, such students will be required to complete at NYU all outstanding coursework, in addition to their program requirements, prior to their graduation from NYU.

I. Content Core (9 credits)

E23.2048 World History (3)
E23.2047 US History (3)
E23.2145 Humanities and the Social Studies (3)

II. General Pedagogical Core (10 credits)

E27.2010 Inquiries into Teaching and Learning (4)
E63.2272 Adolescent Development (3)
E75.2162 Educating Students with Disabilities in Middle Childhood and Adolescent Settings (3)

III. Pedagogical Content Knowledge Core (8 credits)

E23.2146 MA Seminar in Social Studies (3)
E23.2042 Teaching Social Studies in the Middle and Secondary School (3)
E23.2147 Literacy and the Social Studies (2)

IV. Student Teaching (8 credits)

E23.2050 Supervised Student Teaching I: Social Studies in the Middle School (4)
E23.2051 Supervised Student Teaching II: Social Studies in the Secondary School (4)

V. Elective (3 credits)

Course selected with advisor approval from offerings in the Steinhardt School of Education or the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.

VI. Culminating Experience (3 credits)

E23.2140 Culminating Experience: Social Studies and History Workshop (3)

VII. Social Responsibility of Teachers (0 credit)

E27.2999 Drug and Alcohol Education, Child Abuse Identification, School Violence Prevention: The Social Responsibilities for Teacher (0)

Sample Program of Study