December 1, 2014
Renowned educator and author John Goodlad dies
Influential educator and former University of Washington professor John Goodlad died Nov. 29 at his Seattle home. He was 94.
Goodlad came to the UW in 1984 after serving as dean of the Graduate School of Education at the University of California at Los Angeles. He created the Center for Educational Renewal at the UW to conduct research on teacher education and school renewal.
Additionally, he established the independent Seattle-based Institute for Educational Inquiry to apply research findings to school practice and conduct educational leadership training programs.
“John Goodlad offered an alternative vision of what schooling should be and inspired generations of teachers, principals, academics, politicians and policy makers to find ways to make good on that vision,” said David Imig, former president of the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education and a longtime colleague of Goodlad.
Goodlad was born in British Columbia, where he attended graduate school and taught in a rural one-room school. He completed his doctorate at the University of Chicago, held 20 honorary doctorates from colleges and universities in the United States and Canada, and won numerous national awards for his work.
Goodlad was also a prolific writer, authoring hundreds of articles and writing or editing more than 100 books, including “A Place Called School,” which received an Outstanding Book of the Year Award from the American Educational Research Association.
Goodlad is survived by a daughter, Paula; a son, Stephen, and five grandsons. A full obituary appears on the UW College of Education website.
