Hello all!
Picking a thesis idea has been haunting me since freshman year. Since starting my journey in the museum studies field, I could not pinpoint an area where I was die-hard interested in. This alone made me nervous when it came to thesis, because I wanted to be sure I was passionate about whatever I was writing about. Over the last four years my interests have changed and evolved, and I decided I wanted to move past the museum field after graduation and focus my professional journey in education.
So for my thesis project, I’m going to take the public history route to focus on the education system and their relationship to mental health initiatives. I’d focus on grades 9-12 for this thesis. I do not know whether or not I want to do a project-based thesis, or solely focus on the research.
If I were to a more project-based thesis, I’d want to focus on maybe creating a curriculum / program schools could follow to help improve their mental health initiatives for their students. If I did research, I’d mostly write about what their doing and how they could improve upon it.
Not only do I have to research about what they are doing now in schools, I also have to research a lot about psychology and mental health disorders that affect people around the world.
I know I want to at least start by surveying highschools in the area of Rochester to see what they are doing, and what they think they can improve in regards to their mental health and wellness programs they have in place
Hi Grace! I love your idea, it sounds like this project/research thesis could be helpful to a lot of people. When you survey local high schools in Rochester do you plan on going to the schools and seeing what they are doing or just using online material? Will you be doing any interviews? Can't wait to hear more about your thesis idea in class!
ReplyDeleteThis idea is super pertinent, especially to the Rochester City school District. This is an article on a event that happen in my little sisters school and the kid was from her class. It is a very sad story and it would be great to see how your thesis unfolded to prevent unfortunate events like these.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.democratandchronicle.com/story/news/2019/03/08/trevyan-rowe-death-rochester-ny-what-happened/3070767002/
Grace, this is a timely topic. And, Carmen pointed out a really significant local example that would be worth researching and sharing as part of your research. One suggestion I would have is to think about how you can bring this topic into the public history space intentionally -- would you propose curriculum in class or outside of class (at public libraries and so on)? Hi Monica, both of these ideas are really interesting and exciting. For the tools for the first one, consider going back to our notes and user testing from MUSE 360 & HIS 322 last spring. We used some interesting tools that might be useful for what you're attempting. And, we can discuss other ideas. It might be worth looking at the recent discussions through ICOM's conference (recently held in Kyoto) to bring the discussion of museums in the 21st century into the discussion. If museums are educational institutions, what responsibility do they have in mental health/education? Looking forward to learning more! -- Dr. Decker
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