Outlining the premises of role theory applicable to the dean's role, this paper attempts to analyze the dean's role from several perspectives. It recommends ethnographic research for a true understanding of the dean's role and as a means of hastening the reform of education. Recent studies of the deanship, the professoriate, and schools of education reflect the kind of critical self-scrutiny advocated in this paper. The role of the dean of the college of education is analyzed here in relation to the significant others to whom the dean must respond: faculty, students, central administration, school systems, superintendents, and state departments of education. The role of the dean is largely determined by the expectations that others have about it. Faculties expect the dean to be a leader and this is the role toward which the dean must strive. Deans of education must be students of their own roles if they have hopes of becoming true leaders or of influencing institutional change. (Author/JM)