Getting a "teaching license" or "teaching certificate" for teaching in US
High Schools requires a Bachelor of Arts (BA) or Bachelor of Science (BS)
degree in the field you plan to teach, and also requires some number of
"teacher education" courses including "student teaching" (which is a type of
apprenticeship). You probably do not have these teacher education
courses/experiences. However, many states, including Ohio, will allow a
person with the appropriate bachelors degree to teach even if they do not
hold the teaching license. This means there are teachers in service who
have a physics degree but no teacher-education courses and no teaching
license.
When this happens it is supposed to be a temporary or emergency situation.
The school is supposed to be actively searching for a licensed replacement
for the temporary teacher, or the temporary teacher is supposed to be
working on getting the license. This does not always happen. I know some
people who have been teaching chemistry and/or physics for over ten years
without having a license, but they do have a chemistry or physics degree.
This is not supposed to go on that long, but it does. They can be at a
financial disadvantage and in a bit of a uncertain position because they
might not do the regular advancement through the ranks in terms of salary
and contracts. You could stay at starting pay and work on one-year
contracts. This is typically determined by some combination of the local
school board in conjunction with the negotiated contract with the teachers'
union. Therefore, eventually getting the license/certificate would be a
good thing.
Note, the reason for using both words (license/certificate) is that states
differ on what they call it. Ohio has just switched from calling it a
teaching certificate to calling it a teaching license. (The requirements
also changed.) We currently have some teachers teaching with certificates,
and some teachers teaching with licenses, and a few teaching with neither.
Some states also require that renewal of the initial license (licenses must
be renewed at some interval such as 5 years) requires obtaining a masters
degree. Ohio requires this, but it is not always being enforced. Actually,
it is being enforced in the sense you can't renew your license without it,
but we still have people teaching without licenses, so it doesn't matter for
them.
Beyond high school we have
(1) Two-year community colleges or junior colleges or technical colleges.
These grant "terminal degrees" where the student does not go on to further
education after the two-year degree. This degree is typically called an
Associates Degree. Some of these students do continue (with varying
success) to four-year programs. Teaching science at these schools typically
requires a masters degree, but there would also be Ph.D. persons teaching
there. These do not typically require a teaching license.
(2) Two-year or 4-year branch campuses of larger universities. The two-year
branch campuses typically provide the first two years of the main-campus
four-year degree. The four-year branch campuses provide the same full
program as the main campus. Teachers at these places typically must have
the same degree as the parent institution, and that would be a Ph.D. for
people teaching in science areas.
(3) Four-year colleges and universities. These typically require a Ph.D.,
and post-doctoral experience is either an advantage or required.
Alex, you told me your degree is "BSc (Hons), which I have read is
equivalent to a Masters over there." I cannot confirm if this is true or
not. But it would appear to me you would need more physics to teach beyond
the community college level, and you might even need more physics to teach
there. You would have enough physics to teach at the high school level, but
you would want to get a teaching license either right away or eventually.
Michael D. Edmiston, Ph.D. Phone/voice-mail: 419-358-3270
Professor of Chemistry & Physics FAX: 419-358-3323
Chairman, Science Department E-Mail edmiston@bluffton.edu
Bluffton College
280 West College Avenue
Bluffton, OH 45817