Theories or Frameworks

Work capital is any social class-based asset or resource, including experiences, attitudes, behaviors, relationships, knowledge, and skills, that affect individuals’ and communities’ access to privilege and power in the labor market or the workplace. We intentionally replaced “career” capital with “work” capital to be inclusive of marginalized groups who do not
have the vocational privilege to choose their “career” but have to “work” to survive. This framework is centered on social class as a key contextual factor that shapes the distribution of forms of capital.

 

The framework includes four forms of capital: economic (financial resources facilitating work outcomes), human (job-related knowledge, skills, abilities, and other characteristics), social (connections of trustworthy people that share vocational opportunities and resources), and cultural work capital (knowledge of cultural, linguistic, and symbolic habitus that aligns with workplace norms).

The Lotus Clinical Supervision Model is a social-justice-oriented clinical supervision model that focuses on linguistically marginalized international (LMI) trainees. This model centers the core message of being seen with four sets of complementary themes using a lotus flower imagery: a) Humanizing LMI trainees and Providing cultural and structural responsiveness; b) Balancing a not-knowing stance and a knowing stance; c) Cultivating a dual focus on strengths and growth; and d) Incorporating trauma-informed and relational approaches while remaining action and advocacy-focused). 

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​We used this visualization because we interpreted that LMI trainees’ experiences are akin to the lotus’s capacity to emerge from muddy water (e.g., systemic barriers) and its eagerness to pursue growth (e.g., multicultural/social justice-orientation).