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Pathways to Teaching

Congratulations on choosing to pursue a career in teaching. You’re on your way to a challenging, fulfilling career that will never be boring. To begin your journey, you should familiarize yourself with the process of teacher preparation in the state of California by visiting our teacher preparation page.

Having chosen teaching as a career, you need to consider exactly how you’ll go about reaching your goal. While you don’t need to make a firm decision until you are a junior, you should be aware of the options as soon as possible. As with many professions, teaching provides multiple pathways to the end goal, so you’ll need to educate yourself to understand what the options are and then choose the one that best suits your needs. Some questions you need to ask yourself, along with some of the potential answers, are below:

Question: What kind of teaching do I want to do?
Answers: regular education, special education, bilingual education

Students interested in special education should choose the Liberal Studies Traditional Program.

Students interested in bilingual education should choose either the Liberal Studies Traditional Program or the Liberal Studies Middle School Option.

Students interested in regular education can choose any of the three options Liberal Studies Traditional Program, the Liberal Studies Integrated Program, or the Liberal Studies Middle School Option.

Question: What subject area(s) do I want to teach?
Answers: all subjects, definitely only one subject, not sure yet

Students interested in teaching only multiple subjects at the elementary school level should choose the Liberal Studies Traditional Program or the Liberal Studies Integrated Program.  These programs include courses in all subject areas, so a person must be capable of learning and ultimately teaching all subjects, ranging from mathematics and science to the visual and performing arts.

Students who want the flexibility of teaching multiple subjects at the elementary school level or a single subject area at the middle school level should choose the Liberal Studies Middle School Option.

Students who know they only want to teach one subject should choose the appropriate single subject preparation major.  See below.

Question: At what level(s) do I want to teach?
Answers: elementary school, middle school, high school, some combination of these

Students interested in teaching only multiple subjects at the elementary school level should choose the Liberal Studies Traditional Program or the Liberal Studies Integrated Program.

Students interested in teaching multiple subjects at the elementary school level and/or a single subject area at the middle school level should choose the Liberal Studies Middle School Option.

Students interested in teaching only a single subject in either middle school or high school should choose a single subject preparation major in English, social science, math, science (biology, chemistry, or physics), music, or physical education.  See the SDSU General Catalog for more information about these majors.

The answers to these questions will help you determine which pathway is best for you. This flowchart can also help you make a decision regarding the program that's right for you.