Developmental education is a vital component to the transition from secondary to post-secondary education and has been the subject of much discussion related to current challenges faced in the changing academic environment. Through examination of three successful movements in higher education, the service-learning, Open Educational Resources (OER) and sustainability movements, attributes of effective reform will be discussed and analyzed. Levers for transformative change in post-secondary education will be discussed and applied to developmental education in an attempt to resituate developmental education and provide proactive suggestions for reform. / text

Society is facing a crisis of un-sustainability. The sector of higher education is well poised to support transition to a sustainable society. This thesis assesses the efforts of the Campus Sustainability Movement (CSM) in the US and Canada relative to a Strategic Sustainable Development Framework. Key findings indicate that the CSM is utilizing tools and engaging in a variety of actions towards sustainability. However, it is largely failing to use systems thinking to understand the complex interrelationships of its actions. Most efforts lack a strategy, and when strategy is present, it follows more from barriers than from a long-term goal. Current efforts mostly focus on environmental sustainability. The authors present a backcasting from principles of sustainability approach as one means to improve the strategy of the CSM. They also propose a vision for higher education that incorporates sustainability principles and fundamental human needs in an attempt to bring some concreteness to both the environmental and social aspects of sustainability in higher education.