Critical Multiliteracy for Maritime Safety: Integrating Environmental Literacy, Social Competency, and Systems Thinking in Cadet Training

Abstract

This research examines how maritime education can integrate environmental literacy, social competency, and systems thinking into cadet training to develop multiliterate maritime professionals capable of navigating interconnected safety, environmental, and social dimensions of contemporary shipping operations. Through focus group discussions with four senior maritime lecturers, two veteran shipping officers, and four former seafarers, this study investigates how safety culture manifests across deck, engine, and port management operations and what educational approaches systematically develop multiliteracy necessary for informed professional practice. The research identifies that maritime cadets develop strong technical competency (navigational, engineering, operational skills) yet receive insufficient exposure to environmental systems knowledge, social dimensions of safety culture, or integrated systems thinking connecting technical decisions to broader sustainability implications. Findings reveal that safety culture remains narrowly conceived as compliance with technical safety procedures rather than as systemic understanding of how human factors, organizational systems, social relationships, and environmental considerations interconnect to enable or compromise safety. The study demonstrates that maritime multiliteracy—combining technical proficiency with environmental understanding, social awareness, and systems thinking—fundamentally enhances safety outcomes. Research results provide curriculum frameworks integrating multiliteracy development throughout maritime programs, case studies demonstrating safety-environment-social interconnections in real operational contexts, and evidence supporting interdisciplinary maritime education advancing both safety and sustainability simultaneously.

Keywords :  maritime safety culture; multiliteracy; environmental literacy; systems thinking; social competency; cadet education; maritime sustainability