Dip T MCAE, BEd CSturt, MA(Perf Stud) Sydney, MEd (Curric & Admin) Deakin, PhD Flinders Anne McLeod is an experienced educator and academic leader who oversees workplace learning and professional experience programs in the School of Education at Charles Sturt University. In her role as Associate Head of School (Workplace Learning & Partnerships), Anne works closely with schools, early childhood centres, and community organisations to support high-quality placement experiences for pre-service teachers across a wide range of education programs. Anne McLeod is an academic leader and researcher specialising in Work Integrated Learning (WIL), teacher education policy, and school-university partnerships. Her research is situated at the intersection of professional experience governance, workforce development, and regional education sustainability. Anne’s work critically examines the systems, structures, and partnerships that underpin high-quality field experiences in initial teacher education, with a particular focus on rural, remote, and underserved contexts. 2023: NAFEA Research Grant View publications in CRO
Associate Heads of School3788640
Dr Anne McLeod
Associate Head (Workplace Learning and Partnerships)
Dubbo
Building 904 Room 105
With a background as a former K–12 Deputy Principal, Anne brings practical school leadership knowledge to her work in teacher education. She is passionate about building strong partnerships between universities and schools, and supporting students, supervising teachers, and staff to ensure meaningful and successful placement experiences.
Anne is also actively engaged in research and sector leadership, currently serving as President of the National Association of Field Experience Administrators (NAFEA). Her research interests include professional experience policy, teacher workforce development, rural and regional education, and school-university collaboration. Anne regularly contributes to national discussions and research projects focused on improving teacher education and professional learning.
A key strand of Anne’s research investigates HUB-based partnership models that embed WIL within regional communities, addressing teacher workforce shortages, developing place-based professional learning ecosystems, and strengthening long-term teacher retention in rural and remote areas. Her research explores how collaborative governance frameworks between universities, schools, supervising teachers, and local communities contribute to building sustainable teacher pipelines and improving student outcomes.
As President of the National Association of Field Experience Administrators (NAFEA), Anne also leads sector-level research into the evolving nature of field experience administration, WIL policy development, and national regulatory compliance frameworks. Her research agenda addresses key questions around:
System-level governance of professional experience in teacher education;
Policy alignment across WIL, accreditation standards (NESA, AITSL, TEQSA), and workforce strategy;
The role and recognition of supervising teachers as co-educators and WIL practitioners;
Rural, regional, and First Nations community engagement in professional experience partnerships;
Innovation in partnership models to support resilience, equity, and access in teacher preparation.
Anne actively contributes to cross-institutional research collaborations, sector policy reviews, national conferences, and research capacity-building initiatives aimed at strengthening WIL practice, evidence, and scholarship across Australian teacher education.
An expression of interest was sort by NAFEA in 2022 as part of an ongoing topic supported by the executive committee and aligns to the improvement of Work Integrated Learning (WIL) administrative processes and practices; especially in relation to the sustainability of maintaining collaborations between stakeholders. The project is focused on health and education the consultation and collaboration that will be completed will provide a voice and a seminal piece of research for education providers in Australian around the fiscal impact of WIL.
2020: Charles Sturt Excellence Award