Climate Change and the Ocean in School Textbooks in France

Being part of education for sustainable development, ocean literacy and climate change education (CCE) are crucial components to the success of the 17 SDGs (Ferreira et al., 2021). Ocean literacy fosters an understanding of how the ocean impacts human lives and, conversely, how human activities affect the ocean (Santoro et al., 2018). Meanwhile, CCE encourages students to develop knowledge and soft skills essential for discussing and implementing mitigation and adaptation strategies related to climate change (Stevenson, Nicholls & Whitehouse, 2017).

Our research aims to shed light on the scientific and pedagogical treatment of climate change and the ocean in school textbooks in France. In the educational scenario, school textbooks play a pivotal role in promoting both ocean literacy and CCE, as they serve as a central tool for bringing the curriculum to life (UNESCO, 2024). These educational resources are purposefully designed as integral parts of the learning process, enhancing teaching effectiveness (Gérard & Roegiers, 2009). However, ocean literacy and CCE appear to be insufficiently examined and understood in school textbooks, particularly regarding their contributions to teaching and learning (Bonilla & Quesada, 2024; Mogias, Boubonari & Kevrekidis, 2021; Román & Busch, 2016). Previous work suggests that greater attention should be given to the validity of the causes of climate change to avoid misconceptions, that well-established knowledge and concepts should be presented with the due evidence-based, and that progressively more complex activities addressing national impacts and solutions should be introduced in higher grades.

A mixed-methods approach is used for the evaluation: 1) quantitative analysis of the number of pages, words, and iconographic representations of climate change and the ocean for each schoolbook analyzed and for the integrality of the corpus chosen; 2) qualitative analysis of the scientific knowledge (validity, level of certainty, etc.) presented in the schoolbooks.

We propose a study with significant importance to the French school context. The ambition is to provide recommendations on the treatment of climate change and the ocean in school textbooks towards high quality education resources.

References

Bonilla, D., & Quesada, B. (2024). Climate change content in Colombian schoolbooks. Environmental Education Research, 1–32. https://doi.org/10.1080/13504622.2024.2309592

Ferreira, J. C., Vasconcelos, L., Monteiro, R., Silva, F. Z., Duarte, C. M., & Ferreira, F. (2021). Ocean literacy to promote sustainable development goals and agenda 2030 in coastal communities. Education Sciences, 11(2), 62.

Gérard, F. M., & Roegiers, X. (2009). Des manuels scolaires pour apprendre. De Boeck Supérieur.

Mogias, A. ; Boubonari, T., & Kevrekidis, T. (2021). Examining the presence of ocean literacy principles in Greek primary school textbooks, International Research in Geographical and Environmental Education, 30:4, 314-331, DOI: 10.1080/10382046.2021.1877953

Román, D., & Busch, K. C. (2016). Textbooks of doubt: using systemic functional analysis to explore the framing of climate change in middle-school science textbooks, Environmental Education Research, 22:8, 1158-1180, DOI:10.1080/13504622.2015.1091878

Santoro, F., Selvaggia, S., Scowcroft, G., Fauville, G., & Tuddenham, P. (2018). Ocean literacy for all: a toolkit. UNESCO Publishing.

Stevenson, R.B., Nicholls, J. & Whitehouse, H. (2017). What Is Climate Change Education?. Curric Perspect 37, 67–71. https://doi.org/10.1007/s41297-017-0015-9

UNESCO (2024). Greening Curriculum Guidance: Teaching and Learning for Climate Action. Available at: https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000390022?posInSet=1&queryId=09d6a944-d19a-4c39-84b6-7b98784b6b68