The Deep Network - Curating and co-producing quality ocean-education information for adults

The Deep Network is an initiative which brings together multidisciplinary practitioners who in some way support adults outside of formal learning environments. Deep Network members are supporting adults to become ocean literate and effectively motivating learners to actively participate in pro-climate action and marine sustainability. To achieve the ambitious targets set out in the SDGs, our adult population must learn not only to recognise economic, social, and environmental challenges but also act upon this knowledge. In this session, we will present specific barriers that adult learners experience and acknowledge the challenge of participation in non-formal education, and also address scientists’ limitations of time, funding, and partnerships for these types of initiatives. We will present how the Deep Network responds to these needs, providing space for informal and interactive collaboration between marine researchers, educators, and activists. Over 40 active participants from more than 10 countries participated in Deep Network online Hub Meetings to present their educational initiatives. They developed new partnerships and support the curation of an online library of inspiring practice. The overarching consensus in post-meeting evaluations was that learning about and recognizing the value in different methodologies and audiences of initiatives was inspiring and gave participants tangible ideas as well as hope and motivation to continue developing much needed educative materials for adult learners. This is also a strong motivator for participants to use the Deep Network as a springboard for future interdisciplinary collaborations. In this presentation we will detail the conclusions of the Deep Network meetings and show how practitioners learnt from and with each other to build capacity in marine sustainability and adult education. We conclude by making recommendations for future practice.