Grounded in the tradition of the liberal arts and a commitment to social justice through education, the education department has guided our students to develop reflective and critical thinking skills and to translate those skills into practice. In doing so, the department has been offering two paths: the teacher certification program and the educational studies minor. The former program assisted students who had a clear desire to obtain teaching licensure to teach a specific subject in public schools immediately after graduation. The minor program prepared for a wider range of education areas, such as obtaining graduate-level degrees in education and its related fields, joining the teaching profession through alternative programs, and working for government agencies and non-profit organizations with education foci.
Responding to the diverse interests among students and in consideration of the career trajectories that our graduates have pursued in recent years, the Education Department will suspend specific subject-based teacher certification programs housed in the Education Department (English, Social Studies, Math, Science, and Foreign Languages). This decision will not affect the Music Education program, which is housed in the Sunderman Conservatory of Music. The Music Education program will continue to offer the BME with certification.
The Education Department will not be accepting new cohorts of students (i.e. class of 2025 and beyond) to the certification programs housed in the Education Department. Students who are currently in the process (i.e., class of 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024) to get certified will remain in the program if they so choose. The last semester for student-teaching in English, Math, Science, Social Studies, and Foreign Languages will be Fall 2023, at which point we will re-evaluate the suspension of certification in these subject areas in Spring of 2024.
The Education Department acknowledges that public school education plays a significant role in shaping education discourses and practices in today's society. Thus, we will continue to strengthen our partnership with local public schools and community-based organizations both within the Gettysburg area and beyond. At the same time, we recognize that social, cultural, and political practices outside of traditional public-school settings are also a significant form of education. We are committed to continuing to expand and forge our collaborative relationship with various departments, programs, and centers on campus as well as other agencies the local, national, and global scale.
I will follow up on this message in the chair’s meeting on April 22nd. Meanwhile if you have any questions, please feel free to contact me.
Kaoru Miyazawa, Ed.D.
Associate Professor
Chair & Certification Officer
Education Department