AILEAD 2025 Sustaining partnerships, inspiring change in educational leadership
Held on 11 November 2025, the second edition of the Australia-India Leadership Roundtable (AILEAD 2025) was co-hosted by the University of Melbourne in collaboration with Woxsen University, Hyderabad.
Building on the success of the inaugural roundtable in 2024, AILEAD 2025 brought together 15 researchers, academics, and practitioners from both Australia and India to foster collaborative thinking in educational leadership and management.
Centred on the theme “Leading with Care, Purpose, and Equity in the Age of AI,” the Roundtable provided a platform to explore collaborative opportunities, share research insights, and strengthen cross-national partnerships to address pressing leadership challenges in education. The program featured thought-provoking keynote addresses, interactive roundtable discussions, and rich networking opportunities.
Keynote highlights
The day commenced with keynote addresses by three thought leaders who shaped the tone for critical discussions ahead:
- Prof. Helen Stokes explored Trauma-Informed Educational Leadership, a new development in the field. Through a trauma- informed educational practice lens, she highlighted key practices for implementing strategies to support for staff upskilling and incorporate the mindset of a trauma-informed leader working towards student achievement and equity within their communities.
- Dr. Adam Taylor demonstrated how open-source QGIS software, publicly available datasets, and GenAI coding assistance enables researchers to create public-facing, web-based geospatial digital research storytelling on minimal budgets. He outlined how Indian researchers can replicate this methodology using UDISE+ school data, census demographics, and infrastructure datasets to map educational access, equity, and system-level challenges.
- Dr. Pauline Thompson presented research on the experiences of women middle leaders in Australian secondary schools. Drawing on survey and interview data with interviews of principals, middle leaders, and assistant principals from over 20 schools, Dr. Thompson highlighted factors impacting women's access to leadership roles encouraging Indian researchers to explore across Indiancontexts and collaborate on comparative studies.
Roundtable discussions
Insights from the keynote sessions were further explored through four dynamic roundtable discussions led by Dr. Donnie Adams and Professor Adity Saxena, leading to tangible, context-specific strategies in India:
- Trauma-informed educational practices. This session focused on the implementation of trauma-informed educational practices within the Indian context.
- Big data and geospatial mapping for leadership. This roundtable explored the strategic use of data analytics and geospatial tools to drive evidence-based decisions at the system level.
- Women’s leadership. In a thought-provoking discussion participants reflected on the enablers and barriers to women’s leadership in schools and the importance of mentorship.
- School leadership in the age of AI. Focusing on how AI is reshaping educational leadership, this session covered the competencies needed to lead ethically and effectively in an AI-driven era.
Book launch
A special book launch highlighted recent publications that extend the current thinking in educational leadership:
- Trauma-Informed Educational Leadership by Helen Stokes, Jack Greig, and Tom Brunzell
- Technology and Digital Educational Leadership: The Future of Education edited by Donnie Adams and David Gurr
- Teachers Who Lead: Practical Strategies for Building Responsive Teams by Ryan Dunn, Pauline Thompson, and John Hattie
Signed copies were presented to the Woxsen University Library.
Future directions
AILEAD 2025 illuminated the transformative potential of research collaboration for education leadership. As both Australia and India confront evolving educational demands, the relationships, reflections, and resolve nurtured through this conference will be instrumental in shaping future-ready schools.
AILEAD 2025 reaffirmed the Faculty of Education’s unwavering commitment to global collaboration and driving forward-thinking leadership in education.
For more details, please contact the conference chair Dr. Donnie Adams