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Research Question: 

What can the education system implement into their curriculum to educate students on mental health?

My thesis will focus primarily on New York’s Education system, and take data from Rochester based school districts. 

My research will see what resources if any, schools have in place for their students to use when it comes to their mental health. I will include focus areas on; what is required by New York State’s Board of Education when it comes to teaching about mental health, when schools implement these requirements into their curriculum and where/how they go about it, see how access to resources, funding, and location of the school affects how they tackle this problem and ways the state can improve this.

I will take data from the school district on what students think of what the school is doing by surveying classes in multiple schools about the topic of mental health and see the baseline of what they know, what the school has taught them, and if the school itself helps them in a way they feel is adequate.

The point of my research-based thesis is to find ways to improve the curriculum on mental health in secondary education based upon research in psychology, and medical-based facts.

Sources:

1. Board of Education, New York State. “Mental Health Education Literacy In Schools: LINKING TO A CONTINUUM OF WELL-BEING,” July 2018, 1–78. http://www.nysed.gov/common/nysed/files/programs/curriculum-instruction/educationliteracyinschoolsfinal.11.2018.pdf.

2. Reinke, Wendy M., Melissa Stormont, Keith C. Herman, Rohini Puri, and Nidhi Goel. 2011. "Supporting Children's Mental Health in Schools: Teacher Perceptions of Needs, Roles, and Barriers." School Psychology Quarterly 26 (1): 1. https://ezproxy.rit.edu/login?url=https://search.proquest.com/docview/862146515?accountid=108.

3. Atkins, Marc S., Kimberly E. Hoagwood, Krista Kutash, and Edward Seidman. 2010. "Toward the Integration of Education and Mental Health in Schools." Administration and Policy in Mental Health and Mental Health Services Research37 (1-2): 40-47. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10488-010-0299-7. https://ezproxy.rit.edu/login?url=https://search.proquest.com/docview/742995414?accountid=108.
4. Specht, Jacqueline A. 2013. "Mental Health in Schools: Lessons Learned from Exclusion." Canadian Journal of School Psychology 28 (1): 43-55. https://ezproxy.rit.edu/login?url=https://search.proquest.com/docview/1449795363?accountid=108.

Who...knows?

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