Professional Accountability via Professional Imperatives

Abstract

Addressing practical, perennial problems with no discernible solutions (e.g., income insecurity, food insecurity, housing insecurity, health inequality, unsustainability) generates moral fallout–people could be harmed. As a profession, family and consumer sciences/home economics mandates that its practitioners hold deep obligations to the public they serve. Thus, morally- bound practice cannot go unchecked. Family and consumer sciences (FCS) professionals can bolster their professional accountability if they embrace eight professional imperatives, which range from the abstract and the theoretical to the concrete. These include being philosophically grounded, ethically compelled, morally obligated, values oriented, ideologically aware, theoretically mature, intellectually savvy, and competent and skilled. When embraced, these imperatives will better ensure professional accountability by FCS practitioners.