Rate My Professor Helen May

Helen May is Emeritus Professor of Education in the University of Otago College of Education, specializing in early childhood education. She holds a DipTchg, BEdStud, DipEdStud, MA, and PhD from Victoria University of Wellington. Trained as a primary school teacher in the mid-1960s, she taught 5-6 year olds early in her career, worked in childcare, and served as Coordinator of the Victoria University crèche for five years while raising her own children. She began teacher education work at Hamilton Teachers' College in 1987, later joining the University of Waikato. In the early 1990s, she collaborated with Margaret Carr, Sir Tamati Reedy, and Lady Tilly Reedy on developing Te Whāriki, New Zealand's early childhood curriculum. Appointed to New Zealand's first professorial Chair in Early Childhood Education at Victoria University of Wellington in 1995, she moved to the University of Otago in 2005 as Professor of Education and Head of the Faculty of Education, serving as Dean of the College of Education from 2007 to 2011. She retired in 2016 and is now an Adjunct Professor at Victoria University of Wellington.

May's research focuses on early childhood policy, history, and curriculum. She has published extensively, including Politics in the Playground: The World of Early Childhood Education in Aotearoa New Zealand (3rd ed., 2019), Growing a Kindergarten Movement in Aotearoa New Zealand: Its People, Purposes and Politics (with K. Bethell, 2017), Ngā Kohinga Kōrero a te Aumangea: Life Stories on the Frontline (ed. with A. Card and J. Carroll-Lind, 2021), and Making a Noise for ECE 1963-2023 (2023). Other key works include The Discovery of Early Childhood (2nd ed., 2013), School Beginnings (2005), and I Am Five and I Go to School (2011). Her awards include the New Zealand Medal for Services to Education (1990), Life Membership of the New Zealand Childcare Association (1990), NZEI Te Riu Roa Honorary Fellow Award (2010), and Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit (ONZM) for services to education (2016 New Year Honours). She has spoken widely on early childhood topics and currently works voluntarily with Whānau Manaaki Kindergartens on historical projects, including a suite of online history stories for 2026.