Remembering Dean Dwight Allen
Dean Dwight Allen took an iconoclastic approach to education at UMass Amherst.
Dwight W. Allen, EdD, the visionary and influential former dean of the UMass Amherst College of Education, passed away on October 16, 2021, at the age of 90.
The author of nine books, Allen was known for his innovative approaches to leadership and educational reform, whether it was taking faculty and students on retreat to Pikes Peak in Colorado, or canceling classes for weeklong symposia or "Marathons." A dedicated mentor, he recruited a significant number of graduate students of color to the college, and helped lay the groundwork for what would become the college's social justice mission.
Allen came to UMass in 1968 after nearly a decade as professor and director of teacher education at his alma mater, Stanford University. At Stanford, Allen and his colleagues had developed microteaching, a pioneering training strategy in which educators taught for brief periods (often videotaped) and received constructive feedback from colleagues and students.
Allen's iconoclastic initiatives at the College of Education included the admission of students with unconventional credentials, giving students more involvement in governance, allowing them to create their own curricula, and eliminating traditional grading. He also launched the legendary Marathons, when classes were canceled, and students, faculty, alumni, and guests engaged in open discussions on pedagogy.
Allen attracted talented people to the college who then went on to influential careers not just in education but across the spectrum. Richard Holzman ('70 PhD) met Allen when he was a doctoral student at Columbia University, but Allen convinced him to transfer to UMass. "He always saw students as faculty and faculty as students, because we were in a community of learners," Holzman says. "But the discourse that we had was to be translated into action that was transformative, that changed things, that made things for the better."
Marjorie Harrison ('81PhD) was also drawn to the college by Allen's innovations. "UMass was a profound influence in terms of helping me develop the confidence to try things. Allen really set the standard and the College of Education was an amazing place."
In the early 1970s, Allen also approved and accepted the proposal to establish the Bilingual Education Program. For Juan C. Rodriguez ('75 EdD), this was a major milestone in the history of the college, as the program was designed to "[prepare] bilingual teachers that were urgently needed in the public schools, specifically in the Pioneer Valley and throughout the whole Commonwealth."
After leaving UMass, Allen served as a professor at Old Dominion University until his retirement in 2008. He was also devoted to education reform internationally, serving as a technical advisor for the United Nations Development Program in China and as a consultant to the Department of Defense Dependent Schools in Germany, and consulting with educational institutions in Zimbabwe, Botswana, Zambia, India, South Africa, Israel, Uganda, Malawi, and Greece.
Long after his tenure at UMass Amherst, Allen's students and colleagues remember him with enormous fondness. "He reinforced my belief that leadership is all about serving rather than being served," says former UMass professor Ken Blanchard, co-author of The One Minute Manager and Simple Truths of Leadership. "Dwight Allen as a leader was an educational breath of fresh air." In 2001, former student Steven Gluckstern ('74 PhD) showed his admiration by endowing the Dwight W. Allen Professorship of Educational Policy and Reform, thus highlighting Allen's influence on the college in perpetuity.
