Disciplines such as sociology have not traditionally participated in the developmental education field. Our experience as sociologists working with developmental education professional associations and educators found a particular focus on the three basic skill areas of reading, writing, and mathematics. Beyond identifying sociology as a discipline not manifestly concerned with developmental issues, we have noted that entering the developmental education field has been challenging because a limited focus on reading, writing, and math as skills rather than as disciplines has historically tied the field to a definition of who is developmental. However, developmental education is now also concerned with the generation of discipline-specific learning strategies that support the academic progress of all postsecondary learners, at all levels of the learning continuum. This chapter uses the sociology-specific learning strategies of “Universal Design for Learning” and “the sociological imagination” to provide general developmental opportunities and address a wide range of access issues.
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/walter_jacobs/13/