Peter Duncan is living proof that there is no age limit on curiosity and that the mind never really retires.
The 88-year-old has never stopped learning and today he will become what is believed to be the oldest person to graduate with a doctorate from the University of Otago.
"I began at Dunedin Teachers’ College and Otago University in 1956 and spent many years working in the education sector.
"And I retired — well, I haven’t. You know what I mean?
"My interest in education has been sustained right through those years."
His career in education began as an art adviser in Otago, before he was appointed as a lecturer at the Wellington College of Education.
He went on to work at the Ministry of Education where he was eventually appointed as director of teacher education.
It was there that he worked with education ministers David Lange and Lockwood Smith as part of the implementation of the "Tomorrow’s Schools" programme.
The last 20 years of his working career was spent as a consultant, supporting principals and district education leaders from across the United States seeking to improve literacy learning.
All of his experiences led him to start his PhD in education, titling his thesis, "Teachers’ Reflections of Changed Beliefs and Practices".
"I felt I had a really good story.
"My son has told me that research is nothing more than telling a good story.
"So, that’s basically where I took off from."
His PhD thesis follows 25 teachers from the 1990s and the impact that quality teacher development had on changing their teaching practice and the sustainability of that change.
"What I found was that, inevitably, they had changed from teachers who saw only whole-class teaching when they began to teachers who began to understand how it was possible to meet the needs of every individual kid in the class.
"They all felt that they had made tremendous changes and that these changes were sustained for up to 30 years — even when they took up leadership positions."
Mr Duncan hoped his research would be his legacy for future educators to learn from.
"Most younger PhD students have a view of the world that they look upwards and outwards — that they’re going to try to influence the world in some way with their learning.
"I think mine was more reflective and I looked more to my experience and tried to make this thesis a summation of everything I know and believe about teaching and learning, particularly the education of teachers."
While his family and friends were in awe of his PhD achievement, many initially questioned why he was doing it at his age.
Mr Duncan said he still had all of his faculties and he wanted to use them.
"I’m perhaps not as physically able as I used to be.
"I’m not going to run a four-minute mile, but my brain is still working, so it seemed a logical thing to do.
"Actually, I may not even make it on the parade from the dental school to the town hall — no, that’s a joke. Of course I will.
"Wouldn’t miss it for anything."
