Fire messaging: a qualitative exploration of how adults teach children about fire
Journal of Criminological Research, Policy and Practice
ISSN: 2056-3841
Article publication date: 26 September 2024
Issue publication date: 14 November 2024
Abstract
Purpose
Research indicates that children’s early experience of fire can influence what and how they learn about fire. In turn, early fire-learning can influence how people come to use it later in life, including whether they engage in maladaptive use, i.e. firesetting. Little is known about the underlying mechanisms of fire-learning, which was the basis for this study. The research question was: “how do adults educate children about fire in the UK/ Ireland”? The purpose of this study was to explore the child fire education process from an adult perspective.
Design/methodology/approach
Semi-structured interviews was conducted with 21 fire-educators who had regular contact with children. Data was analysed using abbreviated grounded theory. Steps were taken to ensure reliability and validity, including a Cohen’s Kappa calculation, indicating an agreement level of 0.9 between two raters.
Findings
Four core themes were identified: the fire narrative, enabling growth, risk management, and communication, from which the fire-learning process model (F-LPM) was formed.
Research limitations/implications
The main limitation is the nature of the sample, in that it was diverse and self-selecting.
Practical implications
The findings are discussed, including how they offer support for social learning theory (SLT) perspectives on fire-learning.
Social implications
The social construction of fire (i.e. the way fire is viewed by society as a whole in the UK/ Ireland) is discussed in depth, and cultural variability is highlighted. Suggestions are made for how the societal view of fire and, consequently, how adults convey this to young people, could be better balanced.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study in the UK/ Ireland to consider how adults educate young people about fire from a concurrent perspective. This is important given that research indicates early experiences of fire can impact how people later go on to use it (including maladaptive use in the form of firesetting).
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors thank all the participants.
Disclosure statement: No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Data availability statement: An extract of the data analysis codebook, an extract from the reflexive journal and study materials are available online at OSF (https://osf.io/xa86f/?view_only=c900dce17a1c4a1a975ac86499bd310d). Although anonymised, interview transcripts contain detailed information about pa-rticipants’ backgrounds, professional and family circumstances, which could make identification possible. To protect anonymity, the first author does not intend to share the full data set, however selected extracts from tra-nscripts can be provided upon request.
Implications for practice: The first study into how adults educate children about fire in the UK/Ireland. Has highlighted aspects of existing good practice.
Citation
Horsley, F., Birrell, E., Gouldthorp, G., Kohli, D., McLackland, F. and Taylor, E. (2024), "Fire messaging: a qualitative exploration of how adults teach children about fire", Journal of Criminological Research, Policy and Practice, Vol. 10 No. 3/4, pp. 153-165. https://doi.org/10.1108/JCRPP-09-2023-0053
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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