ABSTRACT
This chapter offers a personal theoretical perspective on educational transactional analysis, bringing together a series of related themes and concepts. The objective is to establish a position from which educational transactional analysts might choose to ground their practice, principles and philosophy. The role of the educator in this landscape combines both privilege and challenge. Arguably, at the heart of the work of the educational transactional analyst is a love for learning. Nel Noddings writes extensively on the ethics of care in education and, in her work with Shore, identifies the notion of educational caritas: they assert that love in education, or educational caritas, is something very real. The chapter describes a personal philosophy that can underpin an educational TA perspective. In TA terms, the desire to grow and renew is represented by 'physis', and this in turn is at the heart of educational transactional analysis.
