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H By: Habtamu Alemayehu
Why do you learn the
history? Source: The Article of Lela
B.Costin published in 1969 in
How it started? the Journal of Social
Casework:
Contributors
The First Roles of
School Social Workers
Changes in Different
Times
Challenges
  Ana Frank: “History is like the
Why do mirror of a car. You need to
see back to move forward”.

you learn  Grade 11 History textbook

“History helps to understand
the past, analyze the present
the history and forecast the future”
 A society cannot move

of School
forward if it mistakes the
history
 Major Goal: You will study

Social the history of School Social

Work in the World (USA,
actually) and Social Work
Work? History in Ethiopia so that you
can learn from the history and
establish strong school social
work practice in Ethiopia.
How it Started? The Good Development

 It began in the 1906/07  In 1913, in

Academic Year, in three USA
Cities namely : New York, Rochester, school
Boston and Hartford. Though social work practice
it started at the same time,
began within the
the cities acted independently.
 The practice actually started school system
outside the school system.  The goal was to
This was because the school
principals did not realize the
maximize the
importance fund the practice. cooperation between
of it and refuse the home and school.

The First school Social Workers

were named ‘Visiting Teachers’
 In addition to
the
establishment
of the National
Association of
Visiting
Teachers, in
1921, School
Social Work
Practice was
expanded to
the Middle
Western States

National Association of Visiting

Teachers : was established in
1921, as a major development.
 The Fertile
1. Compulsory Period
Education The early 20th
2. Attention Given to Century was the
Individual Differences Fertile Period for
3. Understanding of
School Social
Work Practice
the importance of because of three
Education for the historical events:
present and future of
the child.
Compulsory Education
This was enacted to fight with
immigrants and ‘Factory Born As per this act,
Americans’ illiteracy.
school age
-Alongside the Compulsory children should
Education Act, there was also Child
Labor Legislation. They go together.
go to school,
not to factory.
And, to support the implementation
of these two legislations, the then
visiting teachers were best
practitioners.
 Attention to Individual
Differences
 Differences based on  This generally
age affects school mean that
performance individual
 Differences based on differences should
Varity of interests be considered to
and abilities affects improve students
school performance school performance
(There are uniquely
able children)
a ris e be ca us e o f the factors
rences could
The individual diffe d th a t s ho uld b e handled by
ystem an
outside the school s
social workers.
Relevance of Education

 Education is pivotal to  One of the supports the

the present and
future of students:
due to the fact that,
students should be
supported outside the
school system. Social
Workers are due for
that.
then social workers
were providing was
finding Tenement so
that the housing
problem of the
students could be
solved.

Do not forget that many Ethiopian students

are also having housing problem.
 Define these  Yourdefinition
words: should be in
 1: Auspices connection with
 2. Peculiar school social work
 3. Recess practice.
 4. Tenement

How many of you want to be a

school social worker?
 The Historical Role The First Role

 Liaison: Home-School  Interpreting the

and Community outside school life of
 One-to-one and the child to the
ongoing relationship school
with students in need  Interpreting the
of support inside school life to
 Reorganization of the parents and
schools in line of the family
need of students
We realize that the school social work practice
does not change fully. The current practices
are a kind of slides of the historical one’s.
There was a three years
demonstration in support of
school social work practice
under the auspices of
Commonwealth Fund
The Mental Hygiene
Movement also contributed
to the development of
School Social Work Practice.
As a result of this
movement, clinics were
established inside schools
and that had implication to
the students with mental
health problems.
Additional Contributors
Commonwealth is an
association of over 60
countries achieve many
goal.
The 1930’s Economic
Recession: Because of the
recession, the goal and
method of the practice
changed. The goal become
having “happy and
wholesome childhood for all
children’. The method was
also addressing the entire
students, not selectively.
1940-1960 Alongside to
Literature Development students and
Clinical Practice was the
teachers, the school
focus (Emotional
Adjustment of Students)
community was also
Students involvement in involved.
the process healing PTA and school
process increased social workers
Families also became an
worked together.
integral part of the School Conditions
healing process
were also improved

How do you evaluate the Literature Development

and the improvement in the practice?
1960-1968
Because of two It became Group
factors: Focused. Group
1. Population work was also
the method. The
Growth (Youth
engagements, on
Number grown) the other hand,
 2. Critical Social were macro level
Problem such as policy
The goal and method advocacy and
policy analysis.
again changed.
 These are Historical
Challenges

Challenges
The School communities did not
accept it immediately
There was no one and all
embracing/clear purpose. The
purpose of school social work
was different based on place.
There was also role confusion.
It was devalued
 Covid-
19 and
School
Social
Work

Think of Covid-19. How did you pass

the time you had during the Covid-19
School Closure?
The Effects of Covid-19
on Education
 Over 1.6 Billion Learners in
190 Countries were affected
 94 Percent of the world’s
student population was also
affected. In case of low and
middle income countries,
the rate goes to be 99%.
 The bad thing is that that
the pandemic affected more
the ‘already vulnerable’
groups.
Source: UN: Policy Brief: Education
During Covid-19and Beyond: 2020
 It also affects the
educational financing
sector
 As a result, the effect of
the pandemic is far from
over.
 Generally, the impact of
Covid-19 was/is daunting.
 How school social workers
reacted to Covid-19 is
historical
How Social Workers Source: Practice in a Pandemic: School Social
Workers’ Adaptations and Experiences During
Reacted to Covid-19 the 2020 COVID-19 School Disruptions 2020

 Amazingly, the school social workers  In

in USA responded to the disruptions
doing so, the
of Covid-19 successfully struggling challenge was getting
with stress.
 It is known that the school social consent form. Most of
workers should address their
students. But, Covid-19 did not allow
the school social
that. Therefore, the school social workers used the
workers were forced to change the
mode of communication with their consent form already
students: they used Email (76%)
Phone (71%) Virtual Contacts like in the files of students
zoom (56%). Text apps were not
frequently used.
before Covid-19.
 There was few home visit (15%)
respecting the social distancing rule

Define What Remote Learning is.

Challenges: The Case of Ethiopia
 As of 17 March 2020, schools were
 Providing remote closed due to Covid-19.
support to students  It is really difficult to find studies on
the effect of Covid-19 in Ethiopia.
was stressful and  The study conducted by Messay,

time taking. Fekadu and Tefera, entitled “Effects

of COVID-19 imposed school closure
on school feeding program in Addis
Ababa, Ethiopia” identified that
children went back to menial jobs
and so on because of the suspension
of School Feeding Program. Some
teachers even found their students
being shoe shine boy.

Discuss the History of Social Work

Education and Practice in Ethiopia
 A Piece of
You learn the History Advise:
of, generally, social Take this
work education, opportunity
because it is difficult
to be one of
to find the history of,
specifically, school the founders
social work in of strong
Ethiopia. School Social
Work Practice
in Ethiopia.
 Education:
Practice:

 Ana Mathol: She  Duringthe time

was a Swedish Emperor Haile
person and health Selassie University
professional. She was College was opened,
practicing social work School of Social Work
before the education was one of the few
started. departments. It was
a Diploma Program of
2 years.
Social Work Education in Africa started in 1930 in
South Africa and Egypt. In some other countries
including Ethiopia started between 1940 and
1960.
 Education Continued:

 Helen Castel: A  In1968, the program

Canadian girl was the became a degree
first director of the program of 4 years.
school. She actually got
the first students from
Menen Boarding School.
Students choose social
work than Medical
science and Agricultural
Study.
Source: Strengthened by Challenges: The path of Social
Work Education in Ethiopia and a book entitled የጸሀይ
ጉዞ.
Interruption of Social
Work Education in Ethiopia

 The Derg Regime closed 3. Alemayehu Haile

Social Work Education. There
are many reasons for this. who was the serious
1. Because Derg Regime competitor of Mengistu
believed that the content of Hailemariam was a
social work education is
against revolutionary social work student
government
2. Because Social Work’s
history is highly related with
westerners, with which Derg
was in conflict

Read the book of Fikreselassie

Wogderes entitled: እኛና አብዮቱ
 Reopened: The First Students:

 In 2004, Social Work  The first program was a

was reopnened in Addis
Ababa University,
thanks to the effort of
Professor Alice
Butterfiled, Dr. Abiy
Tase, Dr. Melese Getu,
Professor Andrias
Eshete and Prof
Seyoum Gebereselassie.
masters program. And,
some of the first
students were the
current faculty
memebers of the school,
namely ; Dr. Emebet
Mulugeta, Zena Berhanu,
Wassie Kebede, Ashenafi
Hagos and so on.

Unlike other departments: When social work was reopened in

2004, it started from a masters program. Then, it continued to the
PhD program and finally Undergraduate Program was opened.
 Challenges:

 The politics of 1. Lack of Faculty

Ethiopia was the Members to teach the
challenge during the courses of social work:
initial period of Social Professors were called
upon from different
Work
international universities
 After the school was
to cover the lack. Actually,
reopened, the some also served from
challenges were: Addis Ababa University
different departments.

The other challenge was that: some nearest departments in

Addis Ababa University did not like the reestablishment of
social work. They challenged the establishment process.
 Contribution:

 Huge institutions such  The country’s social work

as the current Ministry force was also strongly
of Women and Social formed. From this
Affairs, Red Cross, school, so far, 1383
Christian Youth Social workers in three
Association, Family program were graduated.
Planning were This is out of the total
established with the number of social workers
support of social in Ethiopia which is not
more than 3400.
workers.
The school also supported other universities to open social
work. Now, over 9 public universities have social work
departments. In addition, two private colleges are also
admitting students in social work program.
 Some African  The Faculty members
Countries were also also contributed a lot
helped to design a to the policy
good Social Work development process
Curriculum including of Ethiopia (Read. Dr.
Togo, Tanzania, Ashenafi’s article
Ghana, Kenya, entitled as : being
Democratic Republic of
Visible in Policy
Congo and Swaziland.
Process)
Please
Read this
book. This
book is
written by
the first
social work
student in
Ethiopia.