A COM-B Perspective on Integrating Sustainability into Maritime Education
Keywords:
sustainability principles , maritime education , COM-B model , port operation, teaching practicesAbstract
The maritime industry, responsible for over 80% of global transport and around 3% of global greenhouse gas emissions, faces mounting pressure to decarbonise, increasing the need for sustainability education in Maritime Education and Training. Maritime education is crucial for equipping future professionals with the knowledge and skills to address environmental and social challenges. This study examines maritime educators’ commitment to sustainability principles, their awareness of sustainability issues in port services, and the integration of behavioural change approaches into teaching. A quantitative study, guided by the Capability, Opportunity, Motivation=Behaviour (COM-B) model, was conducted using an online survey completed by 86 maritime educators from various countries. The findings indicate that educators are motivated to integrate behavioural change approaches, but need to strengthen their capability through training and resources and have limited opportunities, such as real case studies and interactive learning methods. The study also explores differences across demographic characteristics and offers implications that underscore the role of educators in fostering awareness and adoption of sustainable behaviours among maritime professionals, contributing to environmental and economic sustainability.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
Categories
License
Copyright (c) 2026 Tutku EKER İŞCİOĞLU, TANER ALBAYRAK, Hüseyin Gençer, NICOLETA ACOMI, GHEORGHE SURUGIU, MLADEN JARDAS, SANJIN VALCIC

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Scientific Journal of Maritime Research understands the need for authors to disseminate and maximize the impact of their research. When submitting an article for publishing in Scientific Journal of Maritime Research, it implies that the Corresponding Author transfers, with the consent of all Coauthors, the copyright ownership in the referenced submission, including all versions in any format now known or hereafter developed, to the Scientific Journal of Maritime Research.
Copyright protects your original work and research material and prevents others from using it without your permission. Others will be required to credit you and your work properly, thus increasing its impact. Should your submission be rejected or withdrawn prior to acceptance for publication by Scientific Journal of Maritime Research, this transfer will be null and void.
Authors, users or readers of an article need clear instructions on how they can use the article. Scientific Journal of Maritime Research uses the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 International License, which governs the use, publishing and distribution of articles by authors, publishers and the wider general public.
The authors are allowed to post a digital file of the published article, or the link to the published article (Scientific Journal of Maritime Research web page) may be made publicly available on websites or repositories, such as the Author’s personal website, preprint servers, university networks or primary employer’s institutional websites, third party institutional or subject-based repositories, and conference websites that feature presentations by the Author(s) based on the published article, under the condition that the article is posted in its unaltered Scientific Journal of Maritime Research form, exclusively for non-commercial purposes.