The Department of Liberal Studies at CSULA offers four options leading to the baccalaureate. Option I: Interdisciplinary Studies in Culture and Society; Option II: Elementary Subject Matter Teacher Preparation; Option III: Blended Elementary Subject Matter Teacher Preparation; and Option IV: Elementary Subject Matter Teacher Preparation: Direct Electives.
(1) OPTION I: Interdisciplinary Studies in Culture and Society is a 68-unit program that includes a core of five Liberal Studies (LBS) course (20 units) that are combined with 48 units selected from one or two areas of concentration, such as American Studies; Cultural Studies; Race and Ethnicity; Science, Medicine, and Technology Studies; or Women’s and Gender Studies, that provide students with the opportunity to focus on topics and issues of interest to them.
(2) OPTION II: Elementary Subject Matter Teacher Preparation trains students for a career in teaching by giving them an approved elementary subject matter program including the required courses to help them prepare for the California Subject Examination for Teachers, as part of their baccalaureate prior to entering a preliminary credential program as post-baccalaureate students.
(3) OPTION III: Blended Elementary Subject Matter Teacher Preparation combines the requirements for the baccalaureate in Liberal Studies with the Education courses required for a Preliminary Credential for students seeking a career in teaching who desire to complete their baccalaureate and preliminary credential requirements as undergraduate students.
(4) OPTION IV: Elementary Subject Matter Teacher Preparation: Directed Electives offers students the opportunity to become teachers by helping them either to prepare for the CSET by using their directed electives, with advisor approval, to prepare for the three portions of that exam, or, once they pass the CSET, to use their remaining units to develop a second depth area in one of the subjects commonly taught in the elementary school. Accordingly, students are strongly encouraged to attempt the CSET once they have completed their general education courses in order to assist advisors in selecting courses for them.
Three minors are offered through the Department of Liberal Studies: a Minor in Science, Technology, and Science Studies; an Interdisciplinary Minor in Comparative Linguistics, and a Minor in Women’s and Gender Studies, each of which requires 32 units.
All the options in Liberal Studies draw upon the broad interdisciplinary goals of Liberal Studies and liberal arts programs in colleges and universities around the country. This interdisciplinary focus derives from the liberal arts tradition in which students are trained to think through the full range of approaches to knowledge. The Liberal Studies major represents the ideal of a citizen-thinker who is able to bring to bear a critical mindset to the aesthetic, academic, and civic challenges provided by the modern world.
The Department of Liberal Studies at CSULA is committed to providing our students with an intellectual framework that allows them to examine complex personal, social, and spiritual issues from multiple theoretical and philosophical perspectives. By examining important topics from different perspectives, students can better understand not only the problems they encounter but the heuristic tools that we employ to recognize and solve these problems.
Students completing our Bachelor of Arts degree are prepared for careers in teaching, librarianship, law, medicine, as well as various fields of public service, business, and industry. Liberal Studies students have continued their education in various graduate programs, such as Cultural Studies, American Studies, Art History, Communications, English, History, Film and Television Studies, Critical Studies, and the Social Sciences.