Abstract

Social accountability has become an important philosophy driving the development of health professional education which is responsive to the needs of the wider community. Although the inention to be socially accountable is usually expressed at the level of the institution, the institution’s educational mission is carried out largely by its faculty. Moreover, while the actions of a socially accountable educational institution have been well described, what individual faculty should do to support such a mission is much less clear. This paper summarises the literature surround community-responsive education and makes recommendations regarding how faculty should act to support social accountability including a commitment to community-service as a professional value, seeing oneself as part of the wider community rather than distinct from it, being actively community engaged, measuring success by means of community impact, and being involved in the internal governance and leadership of the institution.

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