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.