The everyday classroom as problematic: A feminist pedagogy

The title of this article is borrowed and adapted from Dorothy Smith's auth oritative text, "The Everyday World as Problematic: A Feminist Sociology." The basic premise of Smith's work is that sociology, as a discipline, has o perated largely outside women's experiences and has, despite this, been use d as a means of measuring, understanding, and articulating the experiences of women. Likewise, the "everyday classroom" has traditionally operated wit hin patriarchal structures and used practices which have not taken up girls ' experiences as distinct and unique. Therefore, problematizing the pedagog ical lens, as Smith has problematized the social sciences we have used to s tudy human relations, leads to, in Smith's case, new feminist research stra tegies in the field, and in the case of pedagogy, new classroom practices a nd a view of curriculum which addresses girls' experiences in necessary way s. Conventions and strategies used in a single-sex, Grade 10 drama classroo m are described in order that the propositions concerning inclusive, femini st pedagogy are grounded in classroom practice.