Dr Rick Flowers
Head of Adult Education Program and Postgraduate Programs, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
BA (London), GradDipAdultEd (UTS), MA (Freiburg), PhD (UTS)
Email: Rick.Flowers@uts.edu.au
Phone: +61 2 9514 3808
Fax: +61 2 9514 3939
Room: CB10.05.588 (map)
Mailing address: PO Box 123,
Broadway NSW 2007,
Australia
Biography
Since 2008 Rick Flowers has been Head of Adult Education and Postgraduate Programs in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS). In this portfolio there are courses in popular education and social change, organisational and workplace learning, adult literacy and numeracy teaching, applied linguistics, TESOL, e-learning, Indigenous Studies, journalism, public relations, organisational communication, information and knowledge management, media arts production, creative writing and international studies.
Rick was Director of the Centre for Popular Education at the University of Technology, Sydney from 1999 to 2007. The Centre for Popular Education undertook research in environmental education and advocacy, community cultural development, health education and community development, the pedagogy and politics of working with young people, union and community organising, and community leadership. The Centres research annual income varied between $50,000 and $700,000. In 2005 it employed six contract researchers, a full-time manager, two research assistants. Seven tenured staff also worked with the Centre. In this time, Rick led over 20 commissioned action research, evaluation and curriculum projects. Clients have included national, state and local government agencies, philanthropic foundations and NGOs. Rick conceived and convened a series of three-day international conferences plus one-day symposia that earned him and the Centre
Previous work includes appointment as a Research Fellow (ARC grant) investigating Aboriginal adult educator training needs, co-ordinator of a rurally based community development training program, and community work in Western Sydney.
Rick has undertaken an extensive amount of pro bono work serving on boards of management with a range of community service and sporting organisations including a football club with almost 2,000 players, a regional football association, a youth refuge, a legal services body and youth sector training organisation.
Teaching areas
New Media and Social Change
Global Problem Solving
Organisational Learning and Change: Local and Global
Research Perspectives
Adult Learning and Program Development
Research
Research interests
Rick is currently collaborating with Elaine Swan. Drawing on Ricks research on collective action and learning, and Elaines work on whiteness, gender and public pedagogies, they are developing a major research programme on food pedagogies. They use the term to explore the way that the growing, buying, preparing, cooking, tasting, eating and disposing of food have become the target of intensified pedagogical activity across a range of domains including cooking programs, social movements, activist films and public health education. In other words, no longer is it just your physical education and home economics teachers, and parents, who teach/preach what food is good for you, but there are now countless TV programs, advertisements, magazines, blogs, festivals, restaurants, supermarkets, growers markets and shops also teaching. Their research seeks to analyse the moral economy of constructions of learners, food knowledges, skills, expertises and how these are racialised, classed and gendered. In less than two years, Rick and Elaine have published four journal papers, and are editing a special issue on Food Pedagogies in the Australian Journal of Adult Learning to come out in November 2012, plus editing a book with Ashgate.
They are undertaking fieldwork in southwestern Sydney. The research is significant and innovative a number of different ways. First, this project focuses upon an under researched and under theorised food pedagogy: the ethnic food tour. There is important literature on culinary tourism and some of this discusses issues of race, ethnicity, class and gender. Second, the research is significant and innovative methodologically: we are using innovative research methods such as walking ethnography, and visceral fieldwork which can contribute to the field of food studies and adult education. Very little of this has attended to issues of race and ethnicity. Thirdly, much public pedagogy research stays at the level of media analysis and does not look at how pedagogies may be constructed by the teacher and received by the imagined learners. Fourthly, we are seeking to internationalise our research by undertaking cross-cultural comparison in order to understand the interface between state tourisms, multiculturalisms, histories and constructions of food, ethnicity and in particular, Asia and Asianness. Fifthly, we are bringing new methods and ideas of bodies and senses to the study of public pedagogy.
Ricks track record led to repeat invitations to lead action research projects in the fields of capacity building for the advocacy-oriented environment movement, grassroots community leadership initiatives, health promotion, and Aboriginal community development. His work has played an important role in raising the profile of popular education.
All of Ricks doctoral students focus on education for citizenship and community development and their settings traverse schools, technical and further education colleges, health promotion, community arts and democracy-building struggles in the face of dictatorships.
Research supervision: Yes
Projects
Selected Peer-Assessed Projects
Cosmopolitan Civil Societies? Developing Shared Research Perspectives on Social Cohesion and Change
Learning and Development for Sustainable Health Futures
Champions For Sustainability Research Project
Health Improvement Katoomba Program
Popular Education and Community Organising Strategy for transport in Fairfield
Evaluation for Phase 2 of the Bridges Project
Evaluation of the Sustainable Schools Program: Schools and their Communities
Mt Druitt Community Leadership Development Strategy
Even Start Programme: Financial Literacy Education Prgoramme for Adults
Local Community leadership strategies in Western Sydney
Publications
Book editorship
Flowers, R. 2006, Ratbags of Airds: Community leadership in Macarthur, Benevolent Society, Sydney.
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funded by Commonwealth Department of Family and Community Services
Flowers, R. 1994, Working with Aboriginal Families: Stories about Family Support Work, Family Support Services Association of NSW and Department of Community and Aboriginal Education, UTS, Sydney.
Research book chapters
Hawke, G.A. & Flowers, R. 2000, 'The recognition of prior learning in australia' in Evans Norman (ed), Experential learning around the world: employability & the global economy, Jessica Kingsley, London UK, pp. 151-166.
Book chapters (other)
Flowers, R. 2009, 'How effective are youth workers in activating young people's voices?' in Rob White (ed), Concepts and Methods of Youth Work, Australian Clearinghouse for Youth Studies, Hobart, Australia, pp. 355-368.
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This paper presents an argument that questions the dominant discourse of empowerment in youth work practice. I report on the analysis of the discourse of a sample of youth and community workers.
Flowers, R. & Hawke, G.A. 2000, 'The recognition of prior learning in Australia' in Norman Evans (ed), Experiential learning around the world: employability & the global economy, Taylor and Francis, Philadelphia.
Flowers, R. & Mcdaniel, M.J. 1995, 'Adult Education and Indigenous Australians' in Griff Foley (ed), Understanding Adult Education and Training, Allen and Unwin, Sydney.
Flowers, R. & Foley, G. 1992, 'Aboriginal Adult Education in Australia' in Peter Willis and Roger Harris (eds), Striking a Balance: Adult and Community Education in Australia: Towards the Year 2000, University of South Australia and Australian Association and Adult and Community Education, Canberra.
Flowers, R. 1991, 'Aboriginal Community Development' in Nick Mannning (ed), Mosaics: A Training Resource for Community Workers in Western Sydney, Western Sydney Community Forum, Sydney, pp. 110-117.
Foley, G., Flowers, R., Camilleri, S. & Ingram, N. 1990, 'Towards an Aboriginal Community Controlled Adult Education' in Mark Tennnat (ed), Adult and Continuing Education in Australia: Issues and Practises, Routledge Kegan and Paul, London.
Refereed journal articles
Flowers, R. & Swan, S.E. 2012, 'Eating the Asian Other? Pedagogies of Food Multiculturalism in Australia', Portal Journal of Multidisciplinary International Studies, vol. 9, no. 2, pp. 1-30.
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Public pedagogies in tourism and education in Australia suggest that food is a medium through which we learn more about each other+s cultures: in other words food is a pedagogy of multiculturalism. Drawing on a white Anglo Australian man+s memories of food in different intercultural encounters, this paper prises open the concept of eating the Other. There has been trenchant critique of food multiculturalism and the consuming cosmopolitan in Australia (Hage 1997; Probyn 2004; Duruz 2010). Thus, several writers critique the prevailing idea that eating ethnic food is a sign of cosmopolitanism, and even anti-racism, in individuals and cities in Australia (Hage 1997; Sheridan 2002; Duruz 2010). Hence, the notion of eating the Other has been taken up to discuss how ethnicity becomes an object of enrichment for white people through the eating of ethnic food in restaurants (Hage 1997) and cooking ethnic food at home (Heldke 2003). In this paper we present an `entangled+ story of Frank which includes white expatriate masculinity, multiculturalism with ethnics and what Heldke calls `colonial food adventuring+. Drawing on a close reading of Frank+s story, we argue that an evaluation of food multiculturalism needs to historicise, gender and racialise inter-cultural food encounters. Thus, we argue that there are ethnic food socialities other than those of home-building or restaurant multiculturalisms. We suggest that culturalist and political economy pedagogies of food multiculturalism could be augmented by one that attends to the production of whiteness and gender.
Flowers, R. & Swan, S.E. 2012, 'Pedagogies of doing good: Problematisations, authorities, technologies and teleologies in food activism', Australian Journal of Adult Learning, vol. 52, no. 3, pp. 532-572.
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In this paper, we apply a framework from Nikolas Rose to analyse the politics of Ô++doing goodÔ++ in food activist education, what we call food pedagogies. We argue that a detailed exploration of food pedagogies has been neglected in adult education and in the growing sites of food education, advice and learning in Australia and other countries. In contrast to other frameworks in adult education which focus on classifying approaches as behaviourist, humanist, progressive and radical, we deploy problematisations, technologies, authorities and teleologies. These latter Ô++pathwaysÔ++ move away from an abstract idea of Ô++power as propertyÔ++ and as coercive (Gore 1993) to an examination of Ô++power as techniqueÔ++ and as productive. Drawing on qualitative data with three different types of food activist educators Ô++ a biodynamic educator, health promotion manager and two farmer-activists, we show how RoseÔ++s framework Rick Flowers and Elaine Swan 533 opens up our ideas about what can be seen as pedagogical to include the non-human and how adult educators authorise their claims to be doing good. We conclude by arguing that the differences in how each of these activists see food and health should not simply be seen as a difference in opinion but a difference in what Annemarie Mol (1999) calls ontological politics. In so doing, the paper contributes new analytic framework for analysing adult educator approaches and in particular their claims to be Ô++doing goodÔ++.
Flowers, R. & Swan, S.E. 2011, 'Eating at Us: Representations of Knowledge in the activist documentary film Food Inc', Studies in the Education of Adults, vol. 43, no. 2, pp. 234-250.
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Writing on social movement learning and environmental adult education invokes particular views on knowledge that need further examination and development in relation to food social movements. Although food social movements take different forms, the paper argues that the politics of food knowledge is at the centre of many of these movements. Contributing to the discourse of social movement learning, this article focuses on the film Food, Inc., an important activist resource and documentary film about a particular food movement. We analyse how it legitimates certain forms of knowledge about food production and consumption and de-legitimates others. Whilst a useful case study on knowledge and film activism in itself, the article seeks to challenge what it sees as some key tenets about knowledge in social movement learning literature. One key tenet is that it is self-evident whose interests are served by 'ordinary people's knowledge' and 'scientific knowledge.' Instead, it is argued that when it comes to collective action for food there is ambiguity, messiness and contestation about what constitutes knowledge and, in particular, anti-capitalist knowledge. But realisation of such ambiguity, messiness and contestation should not lead to paralysed inaction, but to informed and nuanced action. A question then for social movement learning practitioners is how they can mobilise social change through a broader sense of knowledge and its effects.
Flowers, R. 2009, 'Can competency assessment support struggles for community development and self-determination', Report Zeitschrift fuer Weiterbildungsforschung, vol. 32, no. 2, pp. 23-35.
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III this paper an argument is presented that if competency assessment is to make any contribution as a potentially "liberating" curriculum strategy for struggles of commu~ nity development and self~determination thell it needs to contest the authoritarianism of the national qualification frameworks that have been established in Australia and New Zealand. This article critiques research and policy efforts, in particular for indigenous learners which seeh to merely make authoritarian curriculum and assessment structures more culturally appropriate, more accessible and equitable rather than changing and democratisillg the structures themselves.
Flowers, R. & Chodkiewicz, A.K. 2009, 'Communities and schools tackling sustainability and climate change: the Australian Sustainable Schools Initiative in NSW', Australian Journal of Environmental Education, vol. 25, pp. 71-83.
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Local communities and their schools remain key sites for actions tackling issues of sustainability and climate change. A government-funded environmental education initiative, the Australian Sustainable Schools Initiative (AuSSI), working together with state based Sustainable Schools Programs (SSP), has the ability to support the development of more effective community and school relationships. We are interested in the possibilities of enabling more authentic and transformative learning experiences in community and school relationships, by developing a more analytical approach to communities and schools working together. Drawing on Uzzell's (1999) framework and a number of recent empirical studies we describe how communities and schools in one Australian State, New South Wales, have been working together for environmental sustainability. We point to how the links between local communities and schools continue to be under-utilised, and suggest ways that these important relationships can be strengthened and extended.
Flowers, R. & Chodkiewicz, A.K. 2009, 'Developing a more research-oriented and participant-directed learning culture in the Australian environment movement', Australian Journal of Adult Learning, vol. 49, no. 2, pp. 294-318.
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NA
Flowers, R., Guevara, R. & Whelan, J. 2009, 'Popular and environmental education: The need for more research in an 'emerging' field of practice', Report Zeitschrift fuer Weiterbildungsforschung, vol. 32, no. 2, pp. 36-50.
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Environmental education that fosters meaningful community participation and learning has been considered a requisite to sustaining our human and natural environments in many of the global conferences, agreements, declarations and charters since the 1972 UN Conference on the Environment in Stockholm. Despite this growing consensus there is a smail amount of published research in Australia in this field of practice we have decided to call popular and informal environmental education - education that often involves adults in social action. The authors argue, howevel; that there is no shortage of educational practice that can be described as popular and informal environmental education. The autors propose a typology that will assist in defining this field of practice and establish theoretical links with the emerging field of environmental adult education.
Flowers, R. 2009, 'Traditions of Popular Education', Report Zeitschrift fuer Weiterbildungsforschung, vol. 32, no. 2, pp. 9-22.
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Popular education is a term which has been used for a considerable time. At the out~ set, however, it should be pointed out that there are multiple perspectives, but they do not "speak" much to each other. There is a tendency to define popular education in narrow and formulaic terms, according to which tradition one is drawing on. I counter this by discussing four traditions and attempt to distil common features across the multiplicity.
Flowers, R. 2001, 'Historical musings about popular education in Australia', New Community Quarterly, vol. 9, no. 35, pp. 4-9.
Journal articles
Flowers, R. 2011, 'Aboriginal Adult Education, Employment and Community Development Issues in Western Sydney', WESTIRÔ++s Western Sydney Letter, vol. 11, no. 1, pp. 12-17.
Flowers, R. 2011, 'Popular Education and Advocacy for Refugees and Asylum Seekers', Education Links, vol. 68.
Flowers, R. & Trede, F.V. 2005, 'Diversity HealthÔ++ Ô++ Emanzipatorische P+ñdagogik and Gemeinwesenkunst: Ein Fallbeispiel: Geschichtsbilder auf der Kardiologiestation im Prince of Wales Krankenhaus in Australien', Alice, vol. 10.
Flowers, R. 2002, 'Evaluation Perspectives and Practices in Community Cultural Development: A theoretical introduction', Artwork, vol. 53.
Flowers, R. 1984, 'What is the Use of Geography?', Bloomsbury Geographer, vol. 6, no. 1, pp. 21-25.
Journal editorship
Flowers, R. 1993, '1997', The National Bulletin of Good Practice in Adult and Community Education, no. 3.
Conference papers
Flowers, R. 2010, 'Historical musing about popular education in Australia', Melbourne, September 2010.
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Keynote
Flowers, R. 2009, 'Different notions of peer education', Annual General Meeting of NSW Users and AIDS Association, Sydney, October 2009.
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Keynote
Flowers, R. 2009, 'Popular education, health promotion and community development', Sydney, December 2012.
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Keynote
Flowers, R. 2009, 'Popular Education: German and Australian comparisons', Duisburg, Germany, January 2009.
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Keynote
Flowers, R. 2009, 'Storymaking, popular education and cultural diversity in a cardiac hospital ward', University of Western Sydney, Sydney, September 2009.
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Keynote
Flowers, R. 2008, 'Arts and Co-production for Diversity Health', Diversity in Health conference, Sydney, March 2008.
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Keynote
Flowers, R. 2008, 'Professionalisation and adult education in Australia', Forum for the the European Masters in Adult Education, Duisburg, Germany, November 2008.
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Keynote
Flowers, R. 2007, 'A Critique of Trickle-down Theories of Community Education', NSW TAFE Outreach Annual Conference, Sydney, May 2007.
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Keynote
Flowers, R. 2007, 'Implications of the New Research Methodologies in HowardÔ++s Ô++Clever CountryÔ++', New Methods for Social Justice Research in the 21st Century, University of Western Sydney, Sydney, November 2007.
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Keynote
Flowers, R. 2007, 'Local councils and schools working together for climate change, sustainability and active citizenship', 4th International Conference on Environmental Education, Delhi, India, June 2007.
Flowers, R. 2007, 'New forms of education for active citizenship using digital technologies', NSW Learn Scope Gathering, Katoomba, June 2007.
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Keynote
Flowers, R. 2005, 'Education and Social Action', Education and Social Action, UTS, December 2004 in Education and Social Action, ed Flowers, R., Centre for Popular Education UTS, Sydney.
Flowers, R. 2005, 'Popular Education and Action Research', Action Learning, Action Research and Process Management, UTS, Sydney, November 2005.
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Keynote
Flowers, R. 2004, 'Education and Social Action', Sydney, December 2004.
Flowers, R. 2004, 'Education and Social Action', Sydney, December 2004 in Education and Social Action, ed Brown, Tony; Chodkiewicz, Andrew; Hayes, Debra; Malone, Lee; McEwen, Celina; Webb, Tony, Centre for Popular Education, UTS, Sydney.
Flowers, R. 2004, 'Participatory and Engaging, but not Emancipatory: Democracy and Informal Education in Singapore', Proceedings of the Joint International Conference of the Adult Education Research Conference (AERC) and the Canadian Association for the Study of Adult Education (CASAE), Victoria, Canada, May 2004 in Adult Education for Democracy, Social Justice and a Culture of Peace, ed Clover, D., Adult Education Research Conference (AERC) and the Canadian Association for the Study of Adult Educa, Victoria, Canada, pp. 148-154.
Flowers, R. 2003, 'Community Capacity Building', Sydney, August 2003.
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Keynote
Flowers, R. 2003, 'School Ô++ Community Collaborations through Community Cultural Development', Sydney, September 2003.
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Keynote
Flowers, R. 2002, 'Building School Communities', Sydney, November 2002.
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Keynote
Flowers, R. 2001, 'Global and Popular Education', Global Educators National Association, Sydney, June 2001.
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Keynote
Flowers, R. 2000, 'Community Capacity Building', Victorian Rural Health Conference, Lakes Entrance, August 2000.
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Keynote
Flowers, R. 1997, 'Can Competency Assessment Support Struggles for Community Development and Self-Determination?', Partnerships in Assessment, Auckland, New Zealand, September 1996 in Partnerships in Assessment, ed Partnerships in Assessment, Auckland Institute of Technology, Auckland, pp. 50-68.
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invited keynote address
Flowers, R. 1997, 'Community Work, Youth Work and Popular Education', Sydney, November 1997 in Community Work, Youth Work and Popular Education. Revised Conference Proceedings, ed Foley, Griff, Department of Community and Aboriginal Education, UTS, Sydney.
Flowers, R. 1997, 'Is informal education a field of practice? A comparison of Anglo, American and German perspectives', Crossing borders, breaking boundaries research in the education of adults: an international conference, University of London, London, June 1997.
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Keynote
Flowers, R. 1996, 'The Discourse and Politics of Working with Young People', Singapore, November 1996.
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Keynote
Flowers, R. 1996, 'What do youth workers help young people learn?', Youth Work in Western Sydney, Sydney, October 1996.
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Keynote
Flowers, R. 1994, 'The Educational Dimension of Community Work', Bi-ennial conference of the European Society for Research of Education for Adults, Lahti, Finland, August 1994.
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Keynote
Flowers, R. 1993, 'Competency Assessment', Wellington, June 1993.
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Keynote
Flowers, R. 1993, 'Competency Standards in the Community Services Industry', Centre for Australian Community Organisations and Management, UTS, Sydney, July 1993.
Flowers, R. 1992, 'Activists as Educators', Annual conference of the Australian Association of Adult and Community Education, Canberra, December 1992.
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Keynote
Flowers, R. 1992, 'How will competency based training affect youth workers?', Sydney, June 1992.
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Seminar address
Flowers, R. 1992, 'Problem Based Training Program for Legal Support Workers', Annual conference of the Australian Association of Social Work and Social Welfare Educators, NSW University, Sydney, October 1992.
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Keynote
Flowers, R. 1992, 'Youth Sector Training and National Training Reform Agenda', Sydney, October 1992.
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Keynote
Flowers, R. 1991, 'Adult Education, Community Development and Community Welfare', Summer Symposium of the Department of Community and Aboriginal Education, School of Adult and Language Education, UTS, Sydney, December 1991.
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Keynote
Flowers, R. 1989, 'Neighbourhood Centres, the Department of Community Services and Aboriginal Communities', Annual Conference of the NSW Local Community Services Association, Sydney, July 1989.
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Keynote
Flowers, R. 1988, 'Finding Our Voices, Seeing With New Eyes', Toronto, Canada, June 1988 in International League for Social Commitment in Adult Education Conference, ed Soto, Alice, Institute for Technical & Adult Education, UTS, Sydney.
Flowers, R. 1988, 'Research as Dialogue: A Case Study of Participatory Strategies', Annual ILSCAE Conference, Toronto, Canada, June 1988.
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Keynote
Govt reports
Suhood, T., Flowers, R. & Gethin, A. 2006, 'Bridges Strategy Stage II: Final Report - Young people and adults working together around drug issues', Blacktown Alcohol and Other Drugs Family Service, Blacktown, pp. 1-70.
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research report
Flowers, R., Yasukawa, K., McEwen, C. & Johnston, B. 2001, 'Review of literature to assist development of national consumer education strategies', Australian Securities and Investment Commission, Sydney.
Foley, G. & Flowers, R. 1990, 'Strategies for Self-Determination: Aboriginal Adult Education, Training and Community Development in NSW', UTS, Sydney.
Flowers, R. 1989, 'Adult Education and Training in Aboriginal Communities: Two Case Studies of Adult Education Needs, Existing Adult Education Provision and Strategies to get more Training', Sydney College of Advanced Education, Sydney.
Flowers, R. 1988, 'The Need for Aboriginal Community Adult Educators: Case Studies and Strategies', Sydney College of Advanced Education, Sydney.
Flowers, R. 1987, 'Community Participation in the Transport Planning Process: Community Transport in Western Sydney', Fairfield City Council, Sydney.
Broadcasts
Flowers, R. 2004, 'Why activists should be better Educators', Perspective, ABC Radio National.
Flowers, R. 2003, 'Community capacity building', Rural communities, ABC.
Flowers, R. 1996, 'Community controlled education', Maori Community Radio.
Flowers, R. 1996, 'Culture and education', Radio New Zealand.
Flowers, R. 1996, 'Separatist education', Capital TV.
Flowers, R. 1991, 'Aboriginal community development', Connections, ABC Radio.
Flowers, R. 1991, 'Aboriginal community development', Radio Outback.
Flowers, R. 1990, 'Aboriginal education', Vox Populi, SBS.
Flowers, R. 1990, 'Aboriginal education', Radio 5SER.
