Neuroinclusion

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  Building an Inclusive Workforce: Closing Equity Gaps in Community Colleges and Vocational Schools With Elliott’s Embodied Inclusion 360 Framework

  Niki Elliott Ph.D.

  Community colleges and vocational schools serve as critical access points to higher education and upward mobility, yet historically marginalized neurodiverse students—particularly men of color—continue to face inequitable outcomes in retention, completion, and career readiness. Despite rising enrollment in career and technical education programs and increasing workforce demand, institutional practices often rely on fragmented supports that overlook the interplay of physiology, environment, culture, trauma, and instructional design. Closing these equity gaps requires a holistic, embodied approach informed by neuroscience, trauma studies, and culturally responsive pedagogy. Elliott’s Embodied Inclusion 360 (EI 360) Framework offers such a model, integrating five interdependent domains—physiological, relational, environmental, instructional, and transcendental—to address the full spectrum of learners’ needs. Through application of EI 360 within the I C.A.N. (Increasing Career Access through Neurodiversity) initiative, community colleges and vocational programs can transform into engines of inclusion, cultivating belonging, reducing structural barriers, and leveraging neurodiverse strengths as drivers of innovation, persistence, and workforce opportunity.

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  Elliott’s Embodied Inclusion 360 Framework: A Holistic Approach to Supporting Neurodiverse Individuals

  Niki Elliott Ph.D.

  The embodied inclusion (EI) 360 framework asserts that authentic inclusion requires adapting environments in support of neurodiverse learners. The EI 360 model offers an urgently needed synthesis of intersecting theories and practices that are too often addressed in silos: educational neuroscience, trauma-informed teaching, social–emotional learning, inclusive education, and culturally responsive pedagogy. The framework identifies five core domains (i.e., physiological, relational, environmental, instructional, and transcendental) that form a cohesive lens through which to understand and respond to learner needs. Each domain contributes valuable insight into neurodiverse learner neurobiology, replacing fragmented, incomplete support plans with an integrated, individualized profile of a learner’s strengths, challenges, and needs. The EI 360 framework offers an integrated lens that empowers educators to design learning experiences that honor the full complexity of neurodiverse learners.