Meet Alex Boeding, advocating for more LGBTQ-inclusive school policies that matter to teachers, students
Alex Boeding has been a thoughtful and engaged student in all of his School of Education master’s classes while navigating a busy life as a full-time teacher during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Alex consistently demonstrates a strong commitment to the School of Education’s vision for justice and democracy and works to achieve that mission through his careful questions and contributions in class as well as his daily practices as a teacher."
His academic work was consistently strong and immediately connected to his desire to improve his teaching and find ways to better support his students.
Boeding engaged in meaningful projects including analyzing his school’s employee handbook from a feminist and queer intersectional lens, a beautiful paper on the invisibility of Chicanx queer identities in Latinx educational spaces, and his capstone paper exploring LGBTQ teacher identity.
In his capstone, he interviewed LGBTQ teachers and represented their words as found poems to explore how LGBTQ teachers understand and navigate coming out at work.
Boeding’s work in Educational Foundations Policy and Practice program builds on existing literature and extends it in ways that matter to classroom teachers, and these contributions are what led to his distinction as the 2022 Outstanding Educational Foundations, Policy & Practice Master’s Graduate.
“Alex consistently demonstrates a strong commitment to the School of Education’s vision for justice and democracy and works to achieve that mission through his careful questions and contributions in class as well as his daily practices as a teacher,” his nominators state. “Congratulations, Alex!”
In his own words
Please tell us a bit about yourself
I live in Denver with my fiancé, and I currently work as a middle school teacher. I chose ֱ Boulder because it had one of the strongest education policy programs, and it was still close to home!”
What is one of the lessons from your time at ֱ Boulder that you’ll carry with you into the next chapter?
One of my professors early on told us that 'learning should do something to you' and that is something I have held close to me, and will continue to hold close as I move to my next chapter.”
What does graduating from ֱ Boulder represent for you and/or your community?
My family is proud of my accomplishments.”