'Jag måste möta dem där de är': En kvalitativ intervjustudie om svenska skolkuratorers arbete med unga transpersoner

Author: Joakim Hammarstrand Title: “I need to meet them where they are” - a qualitative interview study about Swedish school counselors work with young transgender people. Supervisor: Malinda Andersson Assessor: Anders Östnäs The aim of this study was to examine how school counselors in Sweden work with gender variance. The study also aims to examine and understand the school counselor’s perception of gender variance and which factors that affect the work they do with the target group. Four interviews were conducted with four different school counselors from four different schools. The school counselors were in some way uniform in their response regarding the actual work they were conducting with the target group. Two different themes were identified that seems to play an important role regarding the school counselor’s response to the topic, namely the lack of time and resources. The lack of resources such as knowledge and staff (most Swedish school counselors are unique in their profession) were a common reason why the respondents felt unsure how to work on the issue. The analysis was based on how street-level bureaucrats work with their depth of discretion and how the professional social workers interaction with their clients can be understood in a norm critical perspective. Key words: School counselors, transgender youth, gender variance, depth of discretion.