Incorporating Engaged Research in Social Development

About the Book

In a wide-ranging presentation derived from teaching experiences and research projects, seasoned professors, Wassie Kebede and Alice Butterfield, examine engaged research that links social work, human services, and social development with the intent of instigating action for social change. Drs. Kebede and Butterfield begin by introducing others to an overview of engaged research and models of social change, and then examine development issues in Ethiopia in view of engaged research. After offering their context of engaged research as a prototype for extrapolating development policies that can be studied, compared, and contrasted with those in other countries, Kebede and Butterfield present the results from the engaged research of former PhD students, now faculty at various universities in Ethiopia. The book provides a glimpse into the professors’ own experiences and an emphasis on the importance of involving faculty and students in engaged research through coursework. Incorporating Engaged Research in Social Development is a comprehensive study that offers academic insight and research results in order to promote social development and change. Readers are encouraged to use this book for teaching and implementing engaged research in higher education. Guidelines for teaching undergraduate and graduate courses are included.

About the Author

Wassie Kebede, MSW, PhD, is associate professor and the first graduate with a doctoral degree in Social Work and Social Development at Addis Ababa University, School of Social Work. He is a visiting professor of social work at the University of Gondar in Ethiopia since 2010 and University of Eswatini, former Swaziland, from 2016-2019. He teaches Community and Social Development, Integrated Social Work Methods, Knowledge Building and Models of Social Change, Mixed Methods Research and Community Mobilization and Organization. He contributed to the social development sector in Africa by his involvement in academic capacity building in Eswatini and Ghana. He has served on the Board of Directors of the International Association of Schools of Social Work (IASSW), as Secretary for the African Association of Schools of Social Work (ASSWA). He is associate editor of the Ethiopian Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities (EJSSH) at Addis Ababa University. He can be reached at wassiek7@gmail.com Alice K. Butterfield, MSW, Ph.D. is a professor in the Jane Addams College of Social Work, University of Illinois, Chicago where she teaches policy and practice in the MSW and PHD programs. Dr. Butterfield has pioneered international social work in Romania and Ethiopia. Her research includes the emergence of the nonprofit sector and child welfare organizations in Romania, and participatory community development in Ethiopia. In 2017, she was a Fulbright Specialist at Assam Don Bosco University in Guwahati, Assam, India. Since 2001, she has been involved in a university-to-university partnership to establish MSW and PhD programs at the School of Social Work at Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia. Dr. Butterfield has been a member CSWE Commission on Global Social Work Education. In 2007, she received the Distinguished Alumni Award from Washington University in St. Louis. She can be reached at akj@uic.edu