Blame Game Journals
The transformation of course materials into reflective and reflexive learning journals represents a shift toward more personalized and introspective learning. These journals foster reflection and reflexivity by encouraging students to engage with the content on a deeper, more critical level. Reflective learning allows students to assess what they have learned, linking theory to personal experience, while reflexive learning invites them to critically examine their learning process, beliefs, and biases. This approach enhances comprehension and retention and cultivates self-awareness and critical thinking skills. Ultimately, these journals are a powerful tool for learners to connect with the material meaningfully, encouraging continuous growth and development throughout their academic journey.
The Blame Game is a 5-volume reflexive journaling series that seeks to provide readers with the knowledge, skills, and self-awareness required to maintain equilibrium and personal growth in times of crisis. By remaining self-aware and steadfast, learners empower themselves to challenge and transform one of the injustices and cultural norms that plague social groups: scapegoating. Each journal consists of 4 parts: a short literature review, reflective exercises based on the literature review, a reflexive self-assessment, and daily reflexive journaling exercises geared to engage the learner in critical reflection within the context of their social environments. The five journals consist of the following:
Volume 1: Teacher Burnout
Volume 2: Scapegoating in the Macro: Civilizations
Volume 3: Scapegoating in the Micro: Families
Volume 4: Scapegoating in the Micro: Organizations
Volume 5: The Blame Game
The learner should read each journal in order, with journals four and five each having a real-world case story aligned with their activities. The learner can find case story #1 embedded in volume four and the six-video case story for volume five on YouTube and under the Appreciative Learning Lab website's learning videos tab.
Teacher Burnout
Teacher Burnout- Teacher Burnout is the founding piece of The Blame Game series. Read a literature review covering the origins of employee burnout, the causes and effects of teacher burnout, and recommendations for preventing teacher burnout. Reflective exercises include graphic organizers that enhance understanding of the literature review, and reflexive exercises include a teacher burnout self-assessment that teachers should consider when completing the daily reflexive exercises that monitor mood and decision-making within the context of their teaching environments.
Scapegoating In the Macro: Civilizations
Scapegoating in the Macro: Civilizations- Volume one ends with scapegoating introduced as a rationale for teacher burnout. In volume two, read a literature review about the origins of scapegoating, why it occurs and its impact, the primary players of the scapegoating process and their responsibilities, examples of how scapegoating impacts civilizations, and the pros and cons of scapegoating. Reflective exercises include graphic organizers to enhance understanding of the literature, and reflexive activities include a self-assessment to gauge an understanding of scapegoating within one's society, the role the learner plays in the scapegoating process, and daily exercises to monitor how their perceived role influences the interactions and decision making within the context of their living environments.
Scapegoating in the Micro-Families
Scapegoating in the Micro: Families- Volume 2 ends with the pros and cons of scapegoating, and Volume 3 begins with explaining how scapegoating works in smaller settings, such as families. Read a literature review that utilizes Disney’s Encanto to provide a visual of how and why scapegoating occurs in families. Reflective exercises include graphic organizers to enhance understanding of the literature, and reflexive activities include a self-assessment to gauge an understanding of scapegoating within one's family, the role the learner plays in the scapegoating process, and daily exercises to monitor how their perceived role influences the interactions and decision making within the context of their family setting.
Scapegoating in the Micro: Organizations
Scapegoating in the Micro: Organizations- After reading about how scapegoating works in families, volume four introduces the learner to how scapegoating works in organizations. Read a literature review that examines how scapegoating looks within organizations. In addition to graphic organizers to enhance understanding of the literature review, this journal series includes Case Story #1, a real-world experience that the learner will use to complete the graphic organizers and deepen their understanding of the scapegoating process within organizations. Reflexive exercises include a self-assessment to gauge an understanding of scapegoating within one's organization, the learner's role in the process, and daily routines to monitor how their perceived role influences the interactions and decision-making within the context of their organization.
The Blame Game
The Blame Game- The Blame Game Series culminates with a literature review that details how the game is played, the behaviors undertaken by the scapegoater and the scapegoat during the game, and how audiences react to the decisions made by opposing sides. In addition to graphic organizers to enhance understanding of the literature review, this journal series utilizes graphic organizers to deepen knowledge of The Blame Game using Case Story #2, a real-world, six-part video series found under the learning videos (Occupational Ambiguity) tab of the Appreciative Learning Lab website. Reflexive exercises include a self-assessment and daily journaling to monitor and collect the data required for surviving the Blame Game.
