BA (Macq) BEc (Syd) Grad Dip Ed (Syd TC) MEd (UTS) PhD (UTS)

Senior Lecturer
Academic area: Centre for Popular Education

Telephone: +61 2 9514 3866
Email: Tony.Brown@uts.edu.au
Room: CB10.5.297
Campus: City - CB10 Building

Tony Brown is a Senior Lecturer in Organisational Learning, a Research Fellow in the Centre for Popular Education at UTS, and coordinates the Faculty of Education's postgraduate programs in Learning and Development. He has worked in the field of post-compulsory education for the past twenty-five years combining experience from the field, public administration and the academy. Between 1999 and 2001 he was Executive Director, Adult Learning Australia (ALA) where he was responsible for its management, policy development, and advocacy initiatives. He was responsible for leading a number of national programs including Adult Learners Week, Learning Circles Australia, and the online Directory of Adult Learning (DiAL). He was the editor of the quarterly Adult Learning Australia between 1999-2001 and regularly provided advice to government, national and adult education agencies, and the media. Earlier he was Senior Program Manager and Acting Assistant Director at the NSW Board of Adult and Community Education (BACE) and a Senior Policy Officer in the Skills Development and Workforce Policy Directorate in the NSW Department of Education and Training. At the Centre for Popular Education Tony developed and led a research agenda around Popular Education, Activism & Organising resulting in a series of public forums, Conference strands, the inaugural Community Organising School, and commissioned research projects with three national trade unions. He completed his doctorate in 2002 on Australian trade unions' role in training reform and restructuring in the 1980s and 1990s, and since then has published widely in the field.

Teaching Areas:

Tony Brown’s teaching interests centre upon the theory and practice of adult education and learning especially as it applies in social movements including trade unions, advocacy and activist organisations. He coordinates the following subjects:

Masters programs

Understanding Adult Education & Training
Work & Learning
Adult Education: History, Policy, Context
Independent Study Project I & 2

Bachelors programs

Adult Education Policy in Context

Research Areas:

Tony’s research is part of the Faculty’s Changing Practices Research Cluster. His interests are in:

• the political economy of adult education and work
• labour and social movement education
• the practice and development of community based adult education

Recent and current projects include:

• developing community leadership activities in the western Sydney area of Mt Druitt and Blacktown, commissioned by the NSW Premiers Department
• working on the inaugural Community Organising School - http://www.cpe.uts.edu.au/courses/CommOS.html
• developing a research agenda around the education activities of the labour movement. This has included researching and evaluating the national education program of the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union (AMWU), and researching the informal and formal learning of Lead Organisers in the Liquor, Hospitality and Miscellaneous Union (LHMU)
• researching the experiences of casual academic staff at a metropolitan university, which has been reported on in ‘Getting the best of you for nothing’: casual voices in the Australian academy co-authored with UTS colleagues Dr James Goodman and Dr Keiko Yasukawa, and commissioned by the National Tertiary Education Union,
• the adaptive adult and community education (ACE) organization, commissioned by the NSW Board of Adult and Community Education (BACE)

Professional memberships include: Adult Learning Australia (ALA) and the Industrial Relations Society of NSW. Tony is a Board member of the Sydney Community College, and is the NSW Assistant Secretary of the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) and the UTS Branch Vice-President of the NTEU.

Publications:

Refereed Journal articles

Brown, T. (2006)  ‘Education for organising in a hot climate: a manufacturing union’s experience’, International Journal of Training Research, 4:1, 47-64

Brown, T. (2006) ‘From union inspired to industry led: how Australian labour’s training reform experiment turned sour,Journal of Industrial Relations, 48:4, September, 491-505

Brown, T. (2006) ‘Organising for the future: labour’s renewal strategies, popular education and radical history’, Studies in Continuing Education, 28:1, March, 33-48

Brown, T. (2004) ‘Silencing dissent to win consent: national training reform in the Accord years’, Labour & Industry, 15:1, August, 33-51

Brown, T. (2000) "Lifelong Learning and Adult Community Education" in Australian Journal of Adult Learning 40:1, 10-26

Brown, T. (1999) "Restructuring, teams and learning: the case of a clothing company" in Studies in Continuing Education 21:2, 239-258

Brown, T. (1999) "Challenging globalisation as discourse and phenomenon" in International Journal of Lifelong Education 18:1, Jan-Feb 1-35

Refereed Conference Papers

Brown, T. & McIntyre, J. (2005) “Reviewing organisational learning strategies: one union’s experience” paper accepted for the 4thInternational Researching Work and Learning Conference, 11-14 December, University of Technology, Sydney

Other publications:

2003   Doctoral thesis Labour movement views of post school education, training reform and economic restructuring in Australia between 1982 and 1995

Brown, T. (2003) "Urban disadvantage and learning communities" paper in OVAL Working Paper

Brown, T. (2002) "Pessimism and optimism: researching work and learning" paper prepared following the 2nd International Conference on Researching Work and Learning, University of Calgary, Canada

Brown, T. (2002) "Extending learning opportunities: rethinking adult education and lifelong learning", Education Links no.63 Summer, 30-38

Brown, T. (2001) "Lifelong learning: a social justice issue" in Professional Voice 1:2, September, 21-25, Journal of the Australian Education Union

Brown, T. (2001) Lifelong Learning: investing in a better society, Canberra, ALA,

Brown, T. (ed.) (2000) Lifelong learning: making it work, Canberra, ALA

Henderson, L., Castles, R., McGrath, M. & Brown, T. (2000) Learning around town: learning communities in Australia, Canberra, Adult Learning Australia

Brown, T. (1999) Restructuring the workplace: case studies of informal economic learning, A report for the Ronald Henderson Foundation, Centre for Popular Education, UTS

Brown, T. (1998) "The Asian financial crisis, globalisation and popular education" in Australian Journal of Adult and Community Education, 38:1, 21-30

Brown, T. (1998) "Revitalising the critique of capitalism: the writings of Ellen Meiksins Wood" Education Links No 56/57, November

Brown, T. (1998) "What workers learn about economic restructuring: case studies of informal economic learning", paper presented at the AARE Conference, Adelaide, December

McIntyre, J., Brown, T. & Ferrier, F. (1997) The economics of ACE delivery, Sydney, NSW BACE

Brown, T. (1997) "Reforming Australian education and training: accommodating to or breaking the boundaries?" in P. Armstrong, N. Miller & M. Zukas (eds.) Crossing borders, breaking boundaries: research in the education of adults, proceedings of the 27th Annual SCUTREA Conference London July