Action research is a way of thinking, understanding, and promoting change by involving those directly affected in altering current practice or developing new practice. This article presents examples of action research as a “bottom-up” approach that involves and empowers supervisees. “Top-down” approaches are usually model specific and stem from the practice, theory, and philosophy of supervision espoused by a supervisor relative to the context in which the supervision takes place. Holloway's (1995, 1999) systems approach to supervision is reviewed as an example of a metatheoretical model that integrates bottom-up and top-down approaches. An exemplar of action research based on the Holloway model raises questions for consideration by transactional analysis supervisors.
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