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Jax Gonzalez’s impressive academic accomplishments and educational pursuits would astound even their former self.

“As a first-generation college student, to complete a graduate degree in curriculum and instruction is an accomplishment that 17-year-old Jax could not have imagined when they dropped out of high school,”��Gonzalez (they/tem) said.

“Graduating from CU ������ý���� represents both perseverance and growth for myself and continued dedication to anti-oppressive teaching methods.”

While also completing a PhD in Sociology at CU ������ý����, Gonzalez is graduating with a Master’s in Curriculum & Instruction and Humanities Education from the CU ������ý���� School of Education and has been named the program’s 2021 Outstanding Graduate for their relentless pursuit of liberation.

“I strive for liberation in everything that I do, and teaching is an opportunity to dream about building a world we all want to live in,” they said.

At every turn, Gonzalez has demonstrated their commitment to K-12 teaching, anti-oppressive pedagogy, and justice-centered teacher education.��

A queer activist, Gonzalez has dedicated their academic career to emancipatory sociology that centers and uplifts youth voices in the classroom. In 2016, they earned a Master’s in Sociology and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies from Brandeis University, which established their research agenda examining personal identity at the intersection of education, embodiment, and health.

Gonzalez’s education mentors at CU ������ý���� commend their commitments to justice and their thoughtful contributions to the Humanities Education program. In particular, the faculty lauded Gonzalez’s enthusiastic interest in additional coursework in theory, pedagogy, and practice related to K-12 teaching, collaborations with classroom teacher colleagues and students in schools, and ability to complete a master’s capstone project while designing a dissertation study. Their dissertation investigates the problems of and solutions to heteronormativity and white supremacy in schools by collaborating with teacher educators and teacher candidates to explore how disrupting heteronormativity in teacher education programs impacts teachers’ ideologies and practices.

Likewise, Gonzalez is grateful for their interactions with education colleagues, and their most impactful education lessons from the School of Education are almost too numerous to count.

“In Queering Literacy with Sara Staley and visiting scholar Mollie Blackburn, we deeply interrogated norms and ideals in literacy education that helped me build my anti-oppressive educator toolkit,” they said.

“In a course with Arturo Cortez and José Lizárraga, we engaged play as a pedagogical tool that centers youth knowledge and leverages their interests in learning spaces. This practice helped me to further question what counts as learning in teaching, and how to push up against those boundaries in collaboration with my students.”

Perhaps the high school Gonzalez is surprised to see where they are today, but this is one educator who has found their calling and will continue to fight for liberation in education and beyond.

What does graduation represent to you?

As a first-generation college student, to complete a graduate degree in curriculum and instruction is an accomplishment that 17 year old Jax could not have imagined when they dropped out of high school. Graduating from CU ������ý���� represents both perseverance and growth for myself, and continued dedication to anti-oppressive teaching methods.

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