Not only mermaids. Sea imaginaries by Italian pupils pursuing ocean literacy

This work is in line with recent the British and American ocean academic debate and aims to develop insights among scholars and teachers with discussions on the sea, ocean literacy and oceanic citizenship. The Authors state the key role played by ocean literacy in the school context and affirm that this is a significant educational tool for stimulating a sense of personal responsibility that contributes to the conservation of water and ocean environments. In so doing, they provide their preliminary findings on children’s sea ideas and perceptions which emerged in a piece of work realized by 540 primary school pupils resident in northern Italy. From their representations, in the form of drawings, an idea of the sea is presented which is often stereotyped. This is a meaningful starting point to reflect on the marine imaginary that pupils may develop in the primary school years while the work also sets out to provide a frame to focus perhaps on a more critical and effective geographical and environmental education practice in Italian schools. We believe that the positive image of the sea that most of the children involved in the research demonstrated, can facilitate the task of offering marine environmental education and is well aligned with the guidelines proposed by the current scientific debate on Ocean Literacy