Ocean Literacy (OL) was proposed by UNESCO as a goal for the Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (Ocean Decade) aiming to (1) increase understanding of the importance of the ocean, (2) significantly influence communication on related subjects, and (3) facilitate informed and responsible decision-making about the ocean and its resources. Formal education is essential to expand the reach of OL, providing people with tools to engage in coastal and marine issues consciously and knowingly. To this end, content analysis of school curricula can help planning strategies, especially to empower citizens to implement public policies. This study assessed the extent to which OL-related terms and words are present in Brazilian curricular documents at federal (National Curriculum Parameters-PCNs and Common National Curriculum Base-BNCC) and regional (Federative Units curricular guidelines-RCs) levels. Qualitative (content analysis) and quantitative analyses (descriptive and non-parametric statistics, and multivariate analysis) were performed. The number of occurrences of OL-related words and terms were registered and counted. Nineteen words were found, totaling 797 citations (a frequency of 0.0001 in the total number of words referring to content). The number of citations were higher in BNCC-based RCs than in PCN-based RCs (Kruskal-Wallis test, p = 0.0009). Principal component analysis separated the documents into two groups, one related to BNCC-based RCs of Northeast, North and Midwest regions, with a higher number of OL related terms, and the other group with the PCN based RCs of these same regions plus those documents of Southeast and South regions (principal component 1 explaining 97.90% of the total variation and having 0.93 correlation with the total frequency of citations). General results indicated that Brazilian production on fields and themes related to OL is still concentrated in national journals, books, and booklets, thus with a limited impact. In same way although school curricula in Brazil have a larger number of topics on marine environments than do other countries, they showed heterogeneity among Federative Units, but generally with the topics still representing a very small fraction of Brazilian curricula. Thus, it is necessary to expand the contents related to the ocean and marine environments in curricula to provide students with basic knowledge about the importance and functions of these environments, as well as their conservation. Therefore, results here emphasize the need to implement OL to highlight the importance of knowledge of the oceans and enable citizens to discuss marine conservation policies and promote ocean sustainability. This study provided some strategies to increase OL in formal education and, hence, reach various stakeholders, which is fundamental to implement the United Nations Ocean Decade in Brazil and the Global South.
A cultura oceânica visa formar cidadãos conscientes e informados, capazes de tomar decisões alinhadas com a conservação do oceano e de seus recursos. Neste sentido, a escola pode auxiliar na difusão da cultura oceânica, trazendo esse tema para junto dos conteúdos curriculares, através de atividades práticas, dinâmicas e interativas. Desde 2012, o Laboratório de Genética Marinha e Evolução (Universidade Federal Fluminense) vem desenvolvendo projetos que integram alunos e pesquisadores da universidade com alunos e professores de escolas públicas. Os projetos são baseados em diferentes estratégias (excursões, construção de coleções didáticas, oficinas, exposições, criação de blogs e produção de livros) e centrados no estudo do patrimônio natural e cultural. Os produtos que resultam destas atividades evidenciam que a iniciativa tem se mostrado capaz de despertar o interesse e entusiasmo de alunos e professores, pela sua própria cidade, o ambiente natural que está ao seu redor e os seres vivos que ali vivem. História da Cultura OceânicaO movimento conhecido como ocean literacy, traduzido no Brasil como cultura oceânica (em Portugal é conhecido como literacia do oceano), teve início nos Estados Unidos em 2002, quando cientistas e educadores começaram a discutir a ausência de conteúdos relacionados aos oceanos nos currículos escolares daquele país. Dois relatórios sobre o oceano, publicados, também, nos Estados Unidos, foram muito importantes no avanço deste movimento: o America's Living Oceans, da Pew Oceans Comission 1 publicado em 2003 e o An Ocean Blueprint for the 21st Century publicado em 2004 pela US Comission on OceanPolicy 2 . Estes relatórios ressaltaram a importância do oceano no dia-a-dia das pessoas, as preocupações com a saúde deste ambiente, valorizando a educação como ferramenta para motivar comportamentos que permitam manter a sua integridade e seu uso sustentável, bem como de seus recursos.A definição do termo cultura oceânica ocorreu em 2004, a partir de um workshop on line nos Estados Unidos, que durou duas semanas e reuniu cerca de 100 pesquisadores, professores e outros profissionais envolvidos com os ambientes oceânicos. A partir das discussões ocorridas neste workshop, a cultura oceânica foi definida como "a compreensão da influência do oceano nos seres humanos, bem como a influência dos seres humanos no oceano" 3 . Deste modo, espera-se que uma pessoa que seja alfabetizada em relação ao oceano compreenda conceitos fundamentais sobre o seu funcionamento e possa falar sobre ele de maneira informada, sendo capaz, assim, de tomar decisões conscientes e CITAÇÃO
Ocean literacy (OL) proposes to include ocean and marine environment-related content in school curricula. Such a topic has been deemed effective for citizens to develop actions and attitudes towards the health of marine ecosystems. This study aimed to verify the presence and frequency of OL principles and concepts in the Brazilian high school curriculum at the federal (National Curricular Parameters-PCN) and regional (Rio de Janeiro - Curricular Reference-RC) levels. Both PCN and RC contained OL-related content. Moreover, Biology and Geography were the subjects with the highest numbers of OL concepts, both in the PCN (26 and 27, respectively) and in the RC-RJ documents (28 and 24, respectively), while OL concepts were very little represented in History subject. A Mann–Whitney U-test did not indicate statistically significant differences in the number of concepts between PCN and RC-RJ (p = 0.54). A principal component analysis discriminated the documents according to subjects, regardless of their origin (federal or regional). These results provide an unbiased assessment of the relationship between the curriculum and OL in a strongly affected area (Rio de Janeiro State coastal zone [CZ]). Therefore, these results provide valuable support for managers seeking to promote effective CZ management practices and public compliance.
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