ABSTRACT Although the situations in many African countries require the presence of social workers, social work education is not yet well established in many parts of the Continent. The lack of social work educators presents a significant challenge to developing and running social work education programs. Hence, understanding how a social work education program can be opened despite such a shortage is very important. This article presents innovative strategies for developing a social work education program when local social work educators are not in place. It documents how Ethiopian graduate students assumed academic roles with the support of international social work faculty to manage and implement a social work education program. In 15 years, this initial program has resulted in the blossoming of social work education in Ethiopia, with 12 other universities and colleges currently offering social work degrees. Yet there have been many challenges along the way to this success. How these challenges became opportunities is instructive. This article documents the strategies used to overcome these challenges and make the School of Social Work at Addis Ababa University a sustainable national model. Lessons for social work educators and those interested in starting social work education programs are discussed.

中文翻译：

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因挑战而加强：埃塞俄比亚社会工作教育的路径

摘要 尽管许多非洲国家的情况需要社会工作者的参与，但在非洲大陆的许多地方，社会工作教育尚未完善。社会工作教育者的缺乏对开发和运行社会工作教育计划提出了重大挑战。因此，了解如何在如此短缺的情况下开设社会工作教育计划非常重要。本文介绍了在当地社会工作教育工作者不到位的情况下制定社会工作教育计划的创新策略。它记录了埃塞俄比亚研究生如何在国际社会工作教师的支持下担任学术角色，以管理和实施社会工作教育计划。15 年来，这个最初的计划使埃塞俄比亚的社会工作教育蓬勃发展，与其他 12 所大学和学院目前提供社会工作学位。然而，在取得这一成功的过程中也遇到了许多挑战。这些挑战如何成为机遇具有指导意义。本文记录了用于克服这些挑战并使亚的斯亚贝巴大学社会工作学院成为可持续国家模式的策略。讨论了社会工作教育者和那些有兴趣开始社会工作教育计划的人的经验教训。