“In the Manner of”: Transactional Analysis Teaching of Transactional Analysts

Abstract

This article explores transactional analysis (TA) teaching—that is, teaching “in the manner of TA”—and distinguishes it from teaching TA from a generic educational perspective, an activity that may or may not be analyzed in transactional analysis terms. The author applies transactional analysis philosophy, practice, and theory to the teaching and training of transactional analysts and, in doing so, reviews the literature on TA teaching, as distinct from teaching TA. Drawing on literature about education and learning, as well as about teaching and training, the article makes the point that all transactional analysis trainers are, in effect, in the educational field of application. Therefore, those trainers in the clinical (psychotherapy and counseling) and organizational fields could—and perhaps should—draw more on the experience and expertise of colleagues in the educational field. This, together with a previous, parallel article on transactional analysis supervision (Tudor, 2002), forms essential reading for practitioners teaching and supervising TA as well as those preparing for the Teaching and Supervising Transactional Analysis examination.

Learning Imagoes Update

“…Over the last 10 years, the learning imagoes concept has promoted some healthy debate and reflection and, together with the work of Hay (1996) and Napper and Newton (2000), it has provided at least a basic language for considering training issues. The collection of articles (in particular, Barrow, 2009; Shotton, 2009; and Tudor, 2009) in a theme issue of the Transactional Analysis Journal on “Transactional Analysis Training” furthered this debate and, I hope, will become essential reading for Training Endorsement Workshop candidates, TSTA examinees, and anyone who cares about what happens in transactional analysis training.…”

“…To return to the overall philosophical question, Tudor (2009) and Barrow (2009) opened up the discourse about educational philosophy just as my 2003 article aimed to open up the discussion of why we do what we do the way we do it. There is an ongoing dialogue between the humanistic and the technological or between Barrow’s learning and schooling.…”

Looking for Trouble in Groups Developing the Professional’s Capacity

“…Newton (2003) examined theories and philosophies of adult education from a transactional analysis cultural script perspective. Grant (2004) looked at the way the transactional analysis approach to training correlated with the principles of effective adult education, ideas that Tudor (2009) explored further by considering the way ''teaching 'in the manner of' TA' ' (p. 276) distinguished transactional analysis training activities from more standard educational approaches. Lerkkanen and Temple (2004) were interested in the effects of transactional analysis content and processes on the dynamic and interactive development of teachers personally and professionally.…”

“…Few other approaches…have the same kind of career development and [training] structure that transactional analysis and its international accrediting organizations offer. (Tudor, 2009, p. 276)Where I live and work, teaching is something thrown to the elders, mostly by dint of practice experience and typically with little by way of preparation for the unique activity and process that is teaching. So I have been particularly grateful to the tradition in transactional analysis that takes the process of training as seriously as any other mode of practice.…”

“…Few other approaches…have the same kind of career development and [training] structure that transactional analysis and its international accrediting organizations offer. (Tudor, 2009, p. 276)…”