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Although oceans are important for humanity and planetary health, humanity has put unprecedented pressure on them. Ocean Literacy (OL) has been suggested as one key instrument for the sustainable future of the ocean. Guided by the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) 2020 standards and using peer-reviewed articles from Scopus and Web of Science databases, this study undertakes a systematic review of existing literature on OL in formal education with the aim of synthesising findings and identifying gaps that inform future policies and primary research. The findings reveal disparities in the inclusion of OL content, with countries such as the USA, Japan, and Taiwan showing adequate integration, while others, including Australia and several European nations, exhibit limited coverage. Recommendations emphasise the need for further primary research to identify good practices and opportunities for improvement globally. This can be achieved through the assessment of OL content in national curricula across diverse countries, undertaking studies in previously unexplored regions such as Africa, Latin America, and Southeast Asia, and comparative analyses of OL integration approaches across different countries. The study further recommends that science-policy interactions undertake deeper research on how OL can be best integrated into the curriculum. Developing assessment tools to measure OL knowledge and competencies among policymakers, training institutions, and teachers themselves is also essential in identifying gaps and informing targeted capacity-building programmes. Simply generating scientific information and publishing academic papers should not be an end in itself, but a means to creating ocean-literate people.
Mutanda et al. (Tue,) studied this question.