Ja-born Dr Lois Harris transforming US students through early childhood education

In 2001, Lois Harris was one of several teachers recruited from Jamaica by the New York City (NYC) Department of Education under its international teacher recruitment programme, and, like so many others, her sojourn to New York was to include a bumpy landing.

“We were promised placement and housing, but, on arrival, which was shortly before 9/11 took place, we had to wait for placement, no housing was forthcoming immediately and I and my family had to live with my sister-in-law for about six months before things got straightened out,” she told The Gleaner.

To further complicate matters, she received no salary in those early months and was only able to place her daughter in school because of the kindness of a Jamaican teacher, who ran a community-based basic school, on the promise that when she began receiving her salary, payment for her child’s education would be made.

“Once things got straightened out I was able to pay for my child’s education as promised, but I give thanks to that Jamaican who reached out a helping hand,” she said.

As far as Harris is concerned, that outreach from that Jamaican educator is what community is about, that is, holding up your people.

Born and raised in the St Andrew neighbourhood of Grants Pen, Harris attended Shortwood Elementary School, Merle Grove High School, Shortwood Teachers’ College and later The University of the West Indies.

She began teaching kindergarten through seventh grade in Kingston and then in Grand Cayman. She spent three years teaching in Jamaica, another three years teaching in Cayman, returning to Jamaica where she taught for another six years before applying to be an international teacher recruited by the NYC Department of Education.

After earning a Bachelor of Education degree with honours in elementary education, she continued at The University of the West Indies to complete a master’s in teacher education. During this time, she joined the faculty at St Joseph’s Teachers’ College for the preparation of early childhood and elementary teachers.

Harris was recruited by the NYC Department of Education and while serving as an elementary school teacher in Queens, New York, she earned an advanced certificate in STEM education and has been instrumental in introducing engineering, chess, and robotics programmes to children in kindergarten to grade six.

“The NYC Department of Education recruitment was my ticket to getting my doctorate,” she told The Gleaner.

While working towards her doctorate in teacher instructional leadership, Harris taught for 13 years at the elementary school level.

Unprepared for the job

She feels that many teachers are unprepared for the job that they do.

“As a 20-year-old and a recent graduate of Shortwood, I was thrown into teaching in Jamaica with no life experiences and I felt very unprepared. I wanted to change how teachers were prepared for the profession,” she said.

She told The Gleaner that she always wanted to be a teacher educator, but her involvement with early childhood education made this calling even more important as she saw firsthand the need for teachers to be prepared to take on the challenges of early childhood education.

Early childhood education in the United States, she said, is vastly different than in Jamaica, specifically in relation to the level of preparation that goes into it.

Harris currently works as an education administrator in the Division of Early Childhood Education with the NYC Department of Education and is also an adjunct professor at Medgar Evers College (CUNY).

According to Harris, many of the teachers recruited by NYC Department of Education from Jamaica were trailblazers in early childhood education.

As an administrator in early childhood education, she said her team helps in curriculum development and supervises instructional from Pre-K to some other grades.

With responsibility for more than 40 schools in the borough of Queens in New York, Harris has come in contact with several community-based early childhood institutions.

In her position, Harris has come across students whom some teachers were prepared to give up on, but she and her team were able to turn around.

“Some of these students have been accepted in gifted programmes and have been valedictorians,” she told The Gleaner.

Harris has a profound sense that every child can be taught if only the right tools are used to reach them.

“I am dedicated to ensuring that children get the kind of early childhood education that will set them on a course for success,” she stressed.

In 2023, Harris was selected as an honoree by the National Council of Negro Women, Inc., Queens County Section.

Harris said although she is in the New York City educational system, she has maintains contact with the Jamaican educational system in many ways.

“My life’s calling is to teach the teachers,” said Harris, who has been a dedicated and outstanding educator with a career spanning 35 years.

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