The Deep End: Pedagogy, Poetry and the Public Pool

Abstract

Diving in to new materialist theory, this paper explores what might be learnt at a public swimming
pool, through poetry as arts-based research. Writing, sitting, thinking and swimming, the learner
enters new spaces and atmospheres, where learning emerges as unpredictable and involving a
whole range of human and non-human bodies. Public spaces, where we can think about causality
and design without the strictures of school curriculum, may emerge as key sites for new  understandings of learning where abiding humanist preoccupations can slip away. While this paper
cannot offer the physical and material movement, touching, flesh, smelling, silicone, cotton and
water of the poem as performed at the Public Pedagogies Institute conference in Melbourne in
2015, readers can still be prepared to get changed!