The Everyday Classroom As Problematic: A Feminist Pedagogy

Abstract

The title of this article is borrowed and adapted from Dorothy Smith’s authoritative text, “The Everyday World as Problematic: A Feminist Sociology.” The basic premise of Smith’s work is that sociology, as a discipline, has operated largely outside women’s experiences and has, despite this, been used as a means of measuring, understanding, and articulating the experiences of women. Likewise, the “everyday classroom” has traditionally operated within patriarchal structures and used practices which have not taken up girls’ experiences as distinct and unique. Therefore, problematizing the pedagogical lens, as Smith has problematized the social sciences we have used to study human relations, leads to, in Smith’s case, new feminist research strategies in the field, and in the case of pedagogy, new classroom practices and a view of curriculum which addresses girls’ experiences in necessary ways. Conventions and strategies used in a single-sex, Grade 10 drama classroom are described in order that the propositions concerning inclusive, feminist pedagogy are grounded in classroom practice.