Contesting gender binaries in school counselling in Hong Kong: Supporting students encountering transgender harassment

Abstract

Previous publications on school counselling often focused on lesbian and gay students. Very few publications have examined transgender students’ experiences; none of them addressed the issue in the Hong Kong Chinese cultural context, where transgender equality has been a heated debate in recent years, and prejudice towards this invisible population still persists. Studies in Hong Kong found that school counsellors and other helping professionals do not have sufficient training in gender diversity to support their practice. By increasing this knowledge and understanding, school counsellors would be in a better position to enhance their frontline practice. This chapter aims to provide the terms and transgender development related to transgender students, and to highlight the experiences of transgender students based on a literature review from international and Hong Kong publications. Recommendations for school counsellors to support transgender students in the Hong Kong sociocultural context are made.