In 1846, Education was recognized as a distinct field of study at Oberlin College when the Teacher's Department was added to the Collegiate, Theological, Female, and Preparatory departments of Oberlin Collegiate Institute (as Oberlin College was known until 1850).  Prior to 1846, graduates of any department except the Preparatory qualified for teaching careers.  The three-year Teacher's Course offered by the Teacher's Department embraced most of the studies pursued in the Collegiate Course but added courses related to teaching methods and management of schools.  Although the Teacher's Department closed in 1864,a six-week Teachers' Institute, offering lectures on the theory and practice of teaching, was retained.  In 1894, a two-year course in Physical Training for Women was begun which continued into the 1940s.  Graduates of this program were primarily teachers. 

In 1896-97, the first course in Pedagogy was taught by Stone Professor of Philosophy Henry Churchill King (1858-1934) in the Philosophy Department.  The following year, the Department of Philosophy and Pedagogy was created, with faculty members King and newly appointed Associate Professor Simon Fraser MacLennan (1897-1900) sharing teaching responsibilities.  With the promotion of MacLennan in 1900 to Professor of Philosophy and King's selection in 1902 as President of Oberlin, the need arose for a full-time Professor of Pedagogy.  Accordingly, in 1903, Edward Alanson Miller (1866-1958, A.B. 1889), Superintendant of Oberlin Public Schools, was appointed head of the newly formed Department of Pedagogy.  He served until 1931, presiding over significant changes in the teacher education curriculum.

The first reference to instruction in Education occurs in the Catalogue of Oberlin College  for 1907-08.  The undergraduate major in the field was offered at Oberlin from 1911 until academic year 1961-62.  Students pursuing the major frequently went on to do graduate work in Education or related fields.   When the Department of Education purchased the Oberlin Kindergarten-Primary Training School in 1932, the Kindergarten-Primary major became available.  This major was offered until academic year 1964-65, when it was replaced by the two-year Elementary Master's in Teaching program.  The Child Development major was added in 1946 to prepare students to work with children in fields other than teaching.  Child Development and Kindergarten pedagogy courses were taught by Professor J. Marie Rankin (b. 1896) from 1933 to 1962 and Associate Professor Mary S. Yocom (1894-1968) from 1923 to 1958.

Undergraduates who wished teaching careers complied with a state law enacted in 1913 authorizing certification of graduates of approved institutions who had met certain professional requirements.  Oberlin was recognized as an "approved" institution in December 1914.  Original practice-teaching requirements had been three semester hours, but these gradually increased.  To accommodate the increased practice teaching load of undergraduates, the department initiated in 1929 a five-year program leading to the A.M. degree in education.  The program was discontinued in 1936-37, as not more than a dozen students ever took this program and received a degree.

In June 1960, with a grant from the Ford Foundation, the Oberlin Master of Arts in Teaching Program began preparing liberal arts graduates for careers in secondary school teaching.The program, which extended over a summer session and one full academic year, emphasized advanced work in the student's major and related fields, courses in the field of education, and practice teaching in the form of a semester-long paid internship in a cooperating public school system.  By 1970, owing to competition for students, the draft, and decreases in federal funding, it had become more difficult to attract applicants to the M.A.T. programs.  In March 1971, the Educational Plans and PoliciesCommittee voted to suspend both M.A.T. programs and requested immediate study of the teaching of education at Oberlin.

During the 1970s, the offerings of the Department of Education were designed to serve those interested in the liberal study of Education and those desiring secondary school teaching certification.  Students desiring certification majored in the subject fields they planned to teach.  Following the 1977 visit by the State Department of Education to Oberlin, new standards regulating student-teaching were introduced.  These included 300 hours of practice teaching.  Rather than comply with standards which would have required students to teach full-time for one semester, Professor of Education Ira S. Steinberg (b. 1933) recommended in April 1978 that the College Faculty Council discontinue the department and its certification program.  The department became the short-lived "Program in Education," which was terminated in 1980.  Education Department professors Frank Laycock (b. 1922), Booker Peek (b. 1940), and Ira S. Steinberg were transferred to the departments of Psychology, Black Studies, and Philosophy, respectively.