U.S. Social Studies endorsement to QTS

[Alchemeister]

Hey guys. When applying for a QTS, which subject should people with a U.S. license with a Social Studies endorsement apply for? History… Social Sciences…both?

[PsyGuy]

It doesnt hurt to apply for both options if you can. It doesnt really matter though, they will compare your credential and refer to your transcripts after verifying the subjects your credential authorizes (and after they have verified everything else). In very general terms, youre more likely to get social science than history, aside from all other factors. There have been candidates who held a biology credential but their QTS profile showed PHE because their degree was in sports science.
Regardless it doesnt really matte for IE. QTS is age and subject indiscriminate. Your QTS certificate will not list any subject or age ranges. In the UK it would matter for DE because a DS is responsible for determining what youre eligible to be assigned to. So a HT could assign an arts DT to a maths class, but they would have serious issues if they appointed a DT to a class they werent competent in. That issue doesnt really come up in IE. Youre essentially eligible to teach what your academically prepared in whether its your PGCE, degree, major. So for QTS it doesnt really matter what you apply for except for a few entries (there are fields for three) in your profile, which you can see, and an IS could call the TCL/TRA to inquire about but QTS checks are rather bland. The TCL/TRA will verify the number and holders bio-graphics and that the credential is valid and the status (absence/presence)of any barring orders.

[motionless]

Thanks so much to you both for your in-depth responses. It was well and truly appreciated. I am now looking into doing my QTS!

Thanks again!

[kiaolsp]

Depending on the details of your educational background and teaching experience, you might choose to teach both social sciences and history if you feel comfortable doing so.

[Alchemeister]

Ok so, I’m licensed in several states in Social Studies, English, and ESL. My BA is in communications and my Masters in Education. Do you think they would just not let me transfer my license if i dont have a degree in the subject area?

[PsyGuy]

@Alchemeister

No, they should give you something, most likely English and maybe Media Studies. Social Studies isnt a thing (not in the way that the US typically categorizes it as a composite of anything and everything in the phenomenological sphere of humanities), there is a social science dimension that mostly includes psychology and sociology though can include anthropology, criminology, and other humanities that are further away from those subjects closer to history and economics (business, law, geography, poli.sci, government, civics, citizenship, etc.). ESOL is grouped within English.

[Alchemeister]

My Illinois license includes endorsements in Social Science: History, Social Science: Geography, and similar fields, so I’m hopeful they’ll convert those directly. The only issue is that my Mississippi license simply says ‘Social Studies,’ though it will reach the twenty-month mark before my Illinois one. I’m wondering if they’ll recognize the Illinois endorsements alongside the Mississippi license since, by that time, I’ll have been a licensed teacher for over 20 months.

[PsyGuy]

@Alchemeister

Thats not really possible. There are only three fields in your dossier for subjects. Youre credentialed in English and have a subject matter degree in Communications. I see you getting English (which includes ESOL which is better than English Language by itself) and based on your degree maybe getting Media Studies. Then maybe Social Science.

[Erika1607]

Hello! Thanks for the information on this thread.
For those who have already obtained the QTS with a US license: Do you recommend applying with "History" or "Social Studies," or does the QTS remain unrelated and not relevant for practical purposes?
Thanks in advance!

[PsyGuy]

@Erika1607

It doesnt really matter. You cant have a social studies credential and apply for maths and get it. They will look at your credentials and insert what you have into your dossier subject fields with a limit of three. If you have more than three they tend to start with the oldest (whatever you were awarded first), but thats not a rule or anything. If after your QTS is issued you dont like whats in the fields you can write them an email and ask them to change them, they might, they might not.

QTS is neither age nor subject specific... BUT!

As far as IE is concerned unless a recruiter or leader still has access to the system from when they were in the UK, unless they ask you to screen shot what the subject fields are in your dossier they would have to convince someone at the TCL/TRA to disclose it to them on a phone call.
The but comes in only in regard to DE in the UK. A leader who assigned a DT to a classroom that is in their dossier would be fine, they would probably be fine if it was an adjacent subject and they had some modicum of support for it. Where it would become an issue is assigning say a history DT to a maths class and their only justification for it was the DT had QTS. H.M. inspectorate would have questions for that and those questions might become issues.
In IE it wouldnt matter even at a BSO. Ofsted has different priorities and objectives for DE and DSs, than the Dfe inspectorates for BSOs do. They are just looking for the portion of teaching staff that have QTS (and equivalents), how many are ECTs, and if the IS provides Induction. For BSOs in the credentialing area (and its a small criterion in the overall report) the more common issues (and again, its a minor issue) is what constitutes an equivalent credential far more often than what classroom assignments match teaching subjects in ITs dossiers.
What BSs generally do is look for QTS (which indicates teaching competency such as meds/peds/asst and then look for the major field of study (sometimes the minor field of study) and thats what your qualified to teach, with some allowance for adjacent subjects.

As a US IT in social studies there are some fields that leadership at BSs are very hesitant to appoint or assign, such as geography (its a rare major in the US and general social studies wont cut it for A*). History also tends to be an issue. There are some events in history that have a different UK/EUR slant to them than the US version. Theres also a very significant dichotomy to the amount of content for various shared events. The War of (American) Independence gets maybe a days lesson sometime during KS3 compared to a coupe years if not more in US lower secondary. Its just not a very important event compared to other events such the French Revolution. England was good at getting colonies and bad at keeping them.
This also applies to discreet subjects in the social studies composite that are discreet subjects in the UK curriculum such as Economics and Psychology, especially at A* and IGCSE. Where youre going to find the biggest value is at lower secondary humanities subjects and BSs that have a international division or academy and they offer more US/American centric courses (and they actually need someone to teach American history, etc.)

[enarctic]

This clears up a lot of confusion about QTS, thanks for breaking it down so clearly. The comparison between UK and US curriculum priorities really puts things into perspective — I never thought about how little coverage some “major” American events get overseas.