Relational sonic pedagogies for ocean engagement: soundwalking, soundsitting, and soundweaving

This conceptual analysis proposes a triadic sonic pedagogy for relational ocean engagement, developed for educational and community-based ocean literacy and stewardship initiatives. Grounded in Pauline Oliveros's Deep Listening and Steven Feld's Sonic Relationality, it challenges extractivist imaginaries framing the ocean as passive, and builds on humanities scholarship recognizing oceanic dynamism, by emphasizing the ocean's acoustic agency in coastal and nearshore sonic practice. It develops three interconnected practices -the established practice of soundwalking, the emerging practice of soundsitting, and the novel pedagogical practice of soundweaving-that transform abstract marine concepts into lived multisensory encounters, strengthening empathy, communal bonds, and ethical stewardship. These scalable practices can be used sequentially within a single session or adapted flexibly to different contexts, drawing on multiple cultures and traditions to support careful, attuned engagement with ocean soundscapes. By centering the ocean's acoustic agency, this model challenges anthropocentric paradigms, positions sound as a portal for collective care, and contributes to ocean literacy, geocentric ethical awareness, and relational forms of ocean citizenship in a climate-challenged world.