Marine environmental education in French schools

This paper focuses on marine environmental education in schools in France. From a historical perspective, it studies the initiatives leading to the natural environment, here the coastline, being considered as an educational component in its own right. It details the emergence and subsequent generalisation of two innovative measures within French schools, considered as original in the national education system: the «sea classes» (classes de mer) created in 1964, and the «educational marine areas» (aires marines éducatives), developed in 2012.