University
Moi University
Area of Focus
Educational Psychology
Education
Janet Surum is a PhD candidate at Moi University and a tutorial fellow at the University of Kabianga in Kenya. She received her Masters degree in Educational Psychology from Kenyatta University. Parallel to her studies, Janet is the founder and mental health advocate with Magnificent Lives Kenya (M.L.K). M.L.K is a Community Based Organization( CBO )that aims to alleviate mental health issues and minimize the suffering that comes with it by teaching people how to use their internal assets to win against mental illnesses. Janet’s advocacy on mental health is informed by her own experience with depression as a high school student, an occurrence that informed her interest in Positive Psychology, a field of psychology that investigates the strengths that enable individuals and communities to thrive.
Research & Work
Janet’s doctoral research, titled ‘Personal and Socio-contextual factors as predictors of academic resilience among public secondary school students: A case of Turkana County, Kenya’, investigates the parental, scholastic, and personal factors that promote the academic resilience of students in marginalised areas in Kenya. Janet’s research was born out of a desire to understand why some students succeed despite challenging and debilitating conditions that put them at risk for educational failure, and therefore lowering their life chances. Janet’s approach to studying resilience is strength-based, in that she seeks to understand what contributes to the success of these students. Her research seeks to identify the parental, personal, and school factors that serve as bolsters for academic resilience among students in marginalized areas. Through her research, Janet will help promote the understanding and utilisation of academic resilience as an asset that students can draw from to achieve their educational goals and improve life chances.
