Purpose
Medical school Web sites often advance arguments to claim institutional excellence and appeal to the “best and the brightest” who might join their institutions as medical students. What do these texts communicate about institutional excellence, or the excellence How are discourses related to social accountability, such as those concerning
Method
From July through December 2010, using the concepts of excellence, equity, and diversity, the authors examined the discourses identified on the Web sites of Canada’s 17 medical schools, focusing on faculty welcome pages, deans’ messages, and those pages specifically targeting applicants to medicine.
Results
Institutional prestige and applicant suitability were generally promoted through discourses of academic excellence such as research, innovation, and global positioning. Service-to-society discourses were much less prominent. Diversity discourses emerged primarily as appeals to institutions’ cosmopolitan sophistication. Equity, when mentioned, tended to focus on increasing the participation of indigenous and rural
Conclusions
Discourses can play a central role in regulating social institutional practices. examine the messages that medical schools are communicating on their beyond prestige-based characterizations of excellence and build a socially accountable profession, open and inclusive discussions are needed.
