Walking the Talk: How Transactional Analysis is Improving Behaviour and Raising Self-Esteem

124 Pages·2006·0.87 MB·english

by  Giles Barrow

Walking the Talk
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Walking the Talk
How transactional analysis is improving
behaviour and raising self-esteem
Edited by
GILES BARROW
and
TRUDI NEWTON
David Fulton Publishers Ltd
The Chiswick Centre,414 Chiswick High Road,London W4 5TF
www.fultonpublishers.co.uk
First published in Great Britain in 2004 by David Fulton Publishers
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
David Fulton Publishers is a division of Granada Learning,part of ITV plc.
Note:The right of individual contributors to be identified as the authors of their work has been
asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright,Designs and Patents Act 1988.
Copyright © Giles Barrow and Trudi Newton 2004
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN 1 84312 185 9
All rights reserved.The materials in this publication may be photocopied for use only within
the purchasing organisation.Otherwise,all rights reserved and no part of this publication may
be reproduced,stored in a retrieval system or transmitted,in any form,or by any means,
electronic,mechanical,photocopying,recording,or otherwise,without the prior permission of
the publishers.
Designed and typeset by Kenneth Burnley,Wirral,Cheshire
Printed and bound in Great Britain
Contents
Acknowledgements vii
Introduction viii
TA Terminology 1
1 Teaching TA in the Primary School 5
Linda Hellaby
2 Saying Hello:Establishing a Pastoral Mentoring Service in an
Inner-city Secondary School 17
Pete Shotton
3 It Doesn’t Matter What Age You Are – It’s What Stage You Are At
That Counts 26
Gill Wong and Emma Bradshaw
4 Keep Taking the TA:A Letter to Henri Matisse 39
Patricia Blake
5 Have I Got the Right Hat On? Using TA to Deliver High-quality
Individual Tuition 46
Anthea Harding
6 Am I In or Out? Using Imago Theory in Developing Effective
Group Work 57
Emma Bradshaw and Gill Wong
7 It’s a Zoo Out There! Helping Children Cope with Bullying by
Understanding Drivers and Permissions 68
Ben Wye
8 Taking the Drama Out of a Crisis:How School Managers Use
Game Theory to Promote Autonomy 79
Giles Barrow
vi Contents
9 3-D OK-ness for Schools:Developing Positive School Cultures through
Three-dimensional Acceptance 92
Trudi Newton
10 Conclusion 103
Appendices 111
References and Bibliography 121
Index 123
Acknowledgements
Writing and editing this book has been to experience being part of a creative and
co-operative team. All the contributors have done much more than write their
chapters – we have supported, challenged, negotiated, discussed and made deci-
sions together. From our original idea of jointly writing an article as a group of
educational TA practitioners, we have shared the growth of that idea to produce
Walking the Talk.Thanks go to the staff of David Fulton Publishers,especially Linda
Evans and Anne Summers, for trust, encouragement and helpful advice in that
process.
Thanks also to Mary Cox,Chris Davidson and Jerome White for allowing us to
use their diagrams,each of which has been important in clarifying our thinking by
making ideas visible.Colleagues have permitted us to include stories that they have
shared with us in training courses and workshops – thanks to all of you,and special
thanks to Nicky Rosewell and the staff and children of Grange Middle School,
Harrow,who have tried out many of the ideas and evaluated them for us.
Sharing TA concepts means drawing diagrams – many thanks to David Newton
for doing this for us, and to Rosie Barrow and Jacob Wye for their stories and
illustrations.
And,as always,thanks to everyone who has listened,reflected,questioned,teased
out implications and taken TA into schools and classrooms far and wide.
Introduction
Welcome to our book.We are really pleased you decided to take some time to find
out about our work and ideas.For those readers who want to start to learn imme-
diately about what we have been developing it might be best to skip the following
paragraphs and turn straight to the contents matrix on p.xiii.For those who want
to know a little more about the context of this book and its contributors,read on.
IMPROVING BEHAVIOUR AND RAISING SELF-ESTEEM
An important point to make at the outset is that this is the second book that we have
written describing how transactional analysis (TA) is used in education.The earlier
book is Improving Behaviour and Raising Self-Esteem (2001) (also published by
David Fulton).While it is not necessary to have read the first book in order to make
sense of this one,they are very much companion titles.In our first book we demon-
strated how TA concepts can be explained within the context of schools and class-
rooms.We described how core ideas are used to make sense of the relational aspects
of teaching and learning.We provided illustrative case study material and resources
to encourage practitioners to make their own paths into using TA in education.
Since its publication we have come across numerous stories of how teachers,
support staff and other professionals have applied TA in their work with children
and young people.We have been struck by the accounts of perseverance,creativity
and resourcefulness demonstrated by both adults and youngsters in overcoming dif-
ficulties and in promoting growth and development.What we also noticed is that
there has been an increasing number of professionals who now utilise TA as a key
component in how they understand and shape their work with colleagues and
students.
One of the recurring themes in the feedback we pick up is a growing curiosity
about the core principles that underpin TA, the first of which is that anyone can
learn, change and grow.This is linked to a second belief – that everyone has the
capacity to think, that we can make sense of information, consider options and
make decisions.The third belief is that we think most effectively when we have a
sense that we are OK and that others are too:
Introduction ix
• I’m OK – You’re OK
• Everyone can think
• Anyone can change
This most essential aspect of TA has generated a range of discussions about what
happens in classrooms and staffrooms,and a number of teachers have also discov-
ered the statements can make for a striking wall display.
WALKING THE TALK
This second title is designed to encourage practitioners already using TA to advance
their understanding and application of concepts.For those new to TA we invite you
to use this book to find out about an interesting and alternative approach to the role
of the educator and the learning process.
The way in which this book differs from the first is that there is a significant
emphasis on describing the applicationofTA ideas,as opposed to explaining theory.
All of the contributors are drawing their stories from direct and recent work with
children and staff.The contributors are all practitioners in the learning process,
either with adults and/or children, and their accounts combine insights about TA
concepts with ‘live’situations which will be familiar to many working in education.
In all cases the authors are describing how they ‘walk the talk’in terms of applying
TA.
There are many books that draw on the experience of contributing practitioners
but what might be different about this title is the process by which it has been
produced. Although individual contributors have been responsible for drafting
particular sections,there has been an intentional aim of collaborative contribution
over each chapter. In other words, each contributor has been encouraged to
comment, amend and feedback on each chapter and the overall structure of the
book. Given that one of the common beliefs among the contributors is that diver-
sity and collaboration lead to strength and potency,the process through which the
book has emerged has also demonstrated ‘walking the talk’.
THE BOOK IN CONTEXT
Since the publication of Improving Behaviour and Raising Self-Esteem in 2001,there
has been a plethora of new national and regional initiatives, programmes and
guidance relating to the work of educators.The DfES Behaviour Improvement Pro-
gramme has expanded to include the themes of attendance and multi-professional
practice across many areas of the country.Similarly,the Department’s Key Stage 3
and Primary strategies have both generated a growth in interest and activities
focusing on the relational aspects of the classroom. Cross-departmental pro-
grammes such as the national Children’s Fund Programme and the embedding of
Sure Start, in addition to the potential impact of the Every Child Matters (HMSO