The Bachelor of Arts (Western Civilisation)/Master of Teaching (Secondary) is a teacher education course that is both rigorous and stimulating. Our intellectual program provides you with the opportunity to combine a liberal arts degree in western civilisation and a masters level teaching course.

This innovative pathway allows you to become a secondary school teacher with a teaching major in archaeology, drama, economics, geography, environment and society, history, mathematics, study of religions or visual arts.

Offers will be made to applicants based on high ATAR results and will also be assessed against other criteria, namely “Ramsay Attributes” (i.e. potential to make a positive contribution in Australia and the world as demonstrated through resume, references and a personal statement).

ACU is offering scholarships to domestic students undertaking this degree, funded by the Ramsay Centre. You can read more information below under Scholarships.

Professional experience

Supervised professional experience is at the heart of all our pre-service teacher education courses and the faculty will find appropriate placements to suit the needs of your course. Professional experience units are planned as a specific sequence allowing for progressive development of both classroom-based proficiency and an understanding of the relevance of theory to practice and practice to theory. These units apply skills, techniques and processes taught in the Foundations Studies and Professional Studies units.

The practicum will be supported by other forms of in-school experiences, such as school-based tutorials and workshops.

Placements will usually be arranged for the scheduled placement period in the professional experience calendar though this may not always be possible. The Professional Experience program consists of a minimum of 80 days of teaching rounds, usually broken into three blocks.

Work placement

A challenging and rewarding career in secondary education is a unique opportunity for you to inspire and positively influence the lives of all young people who enter your classroom. Become the teacher who is confident, adaptable, and able to design and implement engaging and flexible learning experiences to meet the needs of your students. This is a graduate entry, preservice teacher education course for those who want to become secondary school teachers.

This course will enable you to adopt a research-based approach to reflective practice. You'll able to consider the implications and applications of this approach to your own professional development and its contribution to your students' learning and wellbeing.

This course provides you with 80 days of valuable professional experience through a range of school and community-based placements. You will have the flexibility to study this course fully online or on campus. 

Community engagement

Students undertake a 50-70-hour community engagement experience as part of WCIV300: Making a Difference: Community Engagement in Local, National and International Contexts. Building on the key ‘Ramsay Attribute’ of making a positive impact on the world around us, this unit encourages students to make meaningful contributions to different communities through volunteer work with people experiencing disadvantage or marginalisation. Core ideas of the western intellectual tradition and key imperatives of ACU’s Mission combine with the transferrable skills students learn throughout their degree to offer a transformative experience that promotes empathy and compassion for diverse local, national and international communities and supports a range of future career paths.