Dr. Leigh Sperka is a Lecturer in the School of Human Movement and Nutrition Sciences within the Faculty of Health and Behavioural Sciences at the University of Queensland. She graduated with First Class Honours from the Bachelor of Health, Sport and Physical Education in 2013 and completed her Doctor of Philosophy in 2018, both from the University of Queensland. Her PhD research investigated the outsourcing of Health and Physical Education, examining decision-making practices, impacts on curriculum, pedagogy, assessment, and student perspectives. Prior to her current role, Sperka worked as a contract Health and Physical Education and science teacher in schools and as a tutor in the Bachelor of Health, Sport and Physical Education program. She now convenes courses in this program, emphasizing inclusive environments that enable all students to participate and succeed, with students at the center of her teaching approach. Sperka has developed student-staff partnership projects and innovative activities such as 'Escape Box' workshops to engage learners.

Sperka's research focuses on outsourcing in education, particularly Health and Physical Education, alongside youth voice, social justice, Health and Physical Education pedagogy, and higher education. She has produced 46 scholarly works, including journal articles such as '(Re)defining outsourcing in education' (2020), 'Students and academics in dialogue: Experiences of two Students-as-partners projects in a health and physical education teacher education program' (2022), 'Vistas of the field: examining quality indicators of health and physical education journals' (2022), 'Engaging young people with disabilities in research about their experiences of physical education and sport: a scoping review of methodologies and methods' (2023), 'An audit of commercialisation and outsourcing across the primary school curriculum' (2025), and 'Outsourcing in HPE: finding cost-efficiencies in specialist curriculum areas' (2025). Book chapters include 'Outsourcing in H/PE: Teachers and sports coaches working together effectively' (2024) and 'Proposals for engaging students in outsourced health and physical education' (2022). Her contributions aim to create evidence-informed resources and guidelines for outsourcing practices. Sperka's teaching excellence is evidenced by the U21 Health Sciences Teaching Excellence Award (2021), University of Queensland Commendation for Outstanding Contributions to Student Learning (2020), Faculty of Health and Behavioural Sciences Awards for Teaching Excellence (2020), Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy, and Fellowship of the Tsukuba Summer Institute (2019).

Professional Email: l.sperka@uq.edu.au