Encountering Olympic landscapes: walking as a pedagogic tool in Stratford, London

Through an examination of our pedagogic practices while working in the department of Performing Arts at the University of East London, we discuss how the specificities of walking in sites of local regeneration, specifically around London’s Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, challenged and expanded our understandings as artists and teachers. We position walking as an artistic medium that engages students in experimental processes and forms that explore space, place and politics. We argue that walking is a flexible and transformative pedagogy that can be applied across disciplines to get students thinking deeply about the context of the places in which they are working and living.