Dr. Ingleton Committed to National Development Through Education and Training

For over 20 years, Dr. Taneisha Ingleton, has been making an outstanding contributing to national development through education and training.

From being a classroom teacher to an administrator, she has been instrumental in crafting and implementing strategies and programmes to improve student outcomes, shape school environments, and transform the nation’s workforce.

It has been an adventure marked by excellence, continuous educational advancement and a desire to leave a lasting impact on those she serves and leads.

On May 28, the Managing Director of the HEART/NSTA Trust will be among 79 educators who will be conferred with the Prime Minister’s Medal of Appreciation, which is awarded to an educator who has served for a minimum of 15 years.

“It is an honour. It’s something that I will carry with much honour and that I will hold dear. I am not necessarily working for the flowers, but when you do get the flowers, it feels good,” she tells JIS News.

Reflecting on her journey, Dr. Ingleton tells JIS News that her career in education began in 2002 as a Spanish teacher at St. Jago High School in St. Catherine.

She recalls that after teaching lower-school students at St. Jago for a year, she wanted to widen her scope.

She went on to St. Andrew High School for Girls where she taught Spanish up to the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) and Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examination (CAPE) levels.

She tells JIS News that then Principal, Sharon Reid, was a driving force in her early years.

“She inspired me a lot and she recognised very quickly my ability for administration. As a matter of fact, she told me that I am an administrator,” she says, adding that, in short order, she was promoted to Head of Department for the Modern Languages Department, managing eight teachers.

Dr. Ingleton then took on the role of sixth-form grade coordinator and had the opportunity to work on the Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examination (CAPE) Spanish and French syllabus at the Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) Headquarters in Barbados.

“I had the opportunity to really plug into the strategies and different books or novels that would be used in the CAPE Spanish and French syllabus and I also had an opportunity to be a CXC marker,” she shares.

During her 10-year tenure, she received the Doris Stockhausen Award for Excellence in School Improvement, completed a postgraduate diploma in education as well as a Master of Philosophy from the University of the West Indies (UWI).

Dr. Ingleton went on to pursue a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) at the University of Saskatchewan in Canada, where she focused on student leadership development.

“I was uniquely interested in developing young people, ensuring that they had capacity, that they had agency – that was always my passion. So, my PhD surrounded student leadership development and student leadership development programmes and designing and aligning student leadership development programmes to systems and curricula, etc., so that students could advance,” she tells JIS News.

She shares proudly that she was the youngest, one of the fastest finishing, and only black student and teacher among the cohort, which had many chief executive officers (CEO).

Dr. Ingleton had the choice of staying in Canada to pursue faculty or coming back to Jamaica.

She chose the land of her birth and started applying for jobs, including Director of Programmes at the National College for Educational Leadership (NCEL).

“I had individuals telling me, ‘Don’t go back. Stay in Canada and get your permanent residency. This is a better space. It makes no sense. You’re not going to thrive in Jamaica’. I had all of those voices coming at me and I made a decision that I am going back home,” she tells JIS News.

She was successful in the interview and in that role, her leadership knowledge and competencies grew from strength to strength.

She had the privilege of designing innovative and transformative programmes to improve principalship at the early-childhood, primary and secondary levels.

Three years into the role, she was elevated to Director/Principal, giving her the opportunity to chart NCEL’s strategic direction and reimagine systems and processes.

Many principals across Jamaica have and continue to benefit from her work on the Aspiring Principals Programme, the Effective Principals Programme, the School Financial Management and Administrative Training Programme, and the University College and Leadership Training Programme.

“It doesn’t matter the kind of school that you’re in, what you have been dealt; it doesn’t matter the passes that you would have gotten from Primary Exit Profile (PEP) or the Grade Six Achievement Test (GSAT); you have an opportunity as a leader to transform the space,” she reasons.

“I really believe that it was perhaps one of my most memorable moments in education – leading that team of very young people, working with principals across the island, showing them that there is a way for them to transform their schools, watching them transform their schools, actually doing it and being proud of it and showing us those results,” she says.

Dr. Ingleton had a short stint at the Caribbean Maritime University (CMU) as Vice President of Administration.

Her belief in lifelong learning led her to the University of London where she graduated with an undergraduate degree in law.

Dr. Ingleton submitted her application to study for the Legal Education Certificate at the Norman Manley Law School and was accepted to commence in September 2022.

During that period, her application to lead the HEART/NSTA Trust was successful, and for a second time, she chose the option that would redound to national development, assuming the role of Managing Director of the national training agency on August 1, 2022.

“I always wanted to dissolve the traditional divide between academic and technical education. I am emphasising that both are essential and complementary components of a robust education system and that we needed to stop this segregation, and so coming into HEART, I was able to get the opportunity to do that, working with Professor Alvin Wint,” she highlights.

She is proud of her leadership at HEART, primarily embracing digital transformation and emerging technologies.

“I decided that we have to forecast, we have to plan, we have to look at what is going to be happening in 2050, and we have to start changing our programmes to reflect those competencies,” she explains.

Working with World Skills International, HEART has introduced robotics, mechatronics, geomatics and geospatial technology, among other areas.

“It has been an amazing journey for me, empowering youth, promoting entrepreneurship, recognising the informal skills and lifelong learning and of course expanding access through digital platforms,” she tells JIS News.

Dr. Ingleton envisions for Jamaica an educational landscape that harmoniously integrates technical and vocational education and training with academic learning.

“I believe that we can have a skilled, adaptable and inclusive workforce that is capable of driving national development and competing globally,” she says.

She also aspires for Jamaica to be the destination for study tours.

“I want Jamaica to be the model education system that every other country runs to, to improve theirs,” she adds.