School psychologists’ perceptions of transgender training and education: An Australian qualitative investigation.

Abstract

Many school psychologists lack transgender training and education and feel underprepared to work with this population. However, little is known about school psychologists' engagement with transgender training and education. To redress this gap, the current study explored cisgender school psychologists' perceptions of transgender training and education. Seven Australian cisgender psychologists completed individual, semistructured interviews, and the data were analyzed using interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA). Three superordinate themes were identified: practicality and utility of training,LGBTQþ curriculum within tertiary education, and addressing the needs of transgender young people. The findings demonstrate the importance of using real-life experiences and case studies within training, having access to available training opportunities, recognizing the global utility of transgender training, updating tertiary LGBTQþ curriculum, and using a queer-informed holistic lens within transgender training and education. Practical implications include promoting the global utility of transgender training, "queering" tertiary education, and incorporating lived experiences into training opportunities. Future research should further investigate the impact of certain types of transgender training and education opportunities on psychologists' perceived competency and client outcomes. Public Significance StatementThis is the first known study to qualitatively explore school psychologists' perceptions of transgender training and education. This study aims to better our understanding of school psychologists' engagement with, and experiences of, transgender training and education, as well as further improving and developing current transgender training opportunities and updating LGBTQþ tertiary curriculum content.

When we go to ask for help, they don't understand how to help us: Understanding how youth with childhood histories of conduct problems link sexuality and gender to school‐based service use

“…While discrimination based on sexual and gender minority status has been identified in healthcare service use settings (Ayhan et al, 2020) as well as among school staff (O'Connell et al, 2010), there has been limited inquiry into the role of sexual and gender identity within school‐based mental health services. Qualitative studies suggest that school mental health workers, such as counselors, school psychologists, social workers, and psychoeducators, feel they need more and better training to support sexual and gender minority youth (Eley, 2009; Mackie et al, 2021; Mackie et al, 2022; Souza et al, 2016). Similarly, gender minority students report receiving inadequate support from school counseling services (Smith et al, 2014), despite school psychologists being open to working with gender‐diverse youth (Bowers et al, 2015).…”

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