They can teach you a thing or two

Teaching is in the genes for the Hansen family from Palmerston North.

Massey University’s Institute of Education director Associate Professor Sally Hansen had a special reason to smile when she read out one name in particular during yesterday’s College of Humanities and Social Sciences’ ceremony for education graduates.

Her daughter Jasmine

had

her post- graduate Diploma in Education conferred, with Sally calling her name out.

Jasmine was the latest member of the family of five to gain an education qualification from Massey.

She celebrated with her mother and father Paul Hansen, who is a senior tutor in visual arts education at the institute. Her sister Polly is also a Massey graduate and now the head of art at Palmerston North Girls’ High School, and her brother Leif teaches art at Palmerston North Boys’ High School.

Jasmine, who teaches primary students at St Albans School in Christchurch, said she had not wanted to become a teacher. But as a science graduate she found herself fronting classrooms as an educator running her own business – a mo- bile marine education programme that toured New Zealand.

It was during a stint at Massey providing training for science teachers that she realised being a teacher was the right fit for her.

Jasmine is working on her master’s thesis, focusing on the links between art and science to explore visual literacy as a new mode of teaching science to diverse cultures.