Childrens’ activities in voluntary firefighting: Example of Volunteer fire department Črnomerec and Volunteer fire department Granešina

Tema diplomskoga rada jesu aktivnosti djece u dobrovoljnim vatrogasnim društvima što pripada području pedagogije slobodnoga vremena. Prema podacima Hrvatske vatrogasne zajednice, više od 17 000 djece diljem Republike Hrvatske sudjeluje u aktivnostima dobrovoljnih vatrogasnih društava. S obzirom da je u aktivnosti dobrovoljnog vatrogastva uključen velik broj djece, nužno ih je istražiti iz pedagoškog aspekta, a preporuka je zastupiti ih i u nekom od budućih pedagoških priručnika. Rad se sastoji od teorijskog i empirijskog dijela. Teorijski dio pruža povijesni pregled i zakonsku regulativu djelatnosti dobrovoljnog vatrogastva te opisuje osposobljavanje za voditelja vatrogasne mladeži. U teorijskom dijelu definirano je i slobodno vrijeme, opisan povijesni razvoj slobodnog vremena i njegov pedagoški aspekt te je opisano dobrovoljno vatrogastvo kao izvanškolska aktivnost. U empirijskom dijelu prikazani su rezultati dobiveni ispitivanjem voditelja vatrogasne mladeži o aktivnostima djece u dobrovoljnom vatrogastvu i načinu njihova provođenja. Podaci su prikupljeni metodom fokus grupe. U dvije provedene fokus grupe sudjelovali su ispitanici iz Dobrovoljnog vatrogasnog društva Črnomerec i Dobrovoljnog vatrogasnog društava Granešina. Dobiveni rezultati pokazuju da aktivnosti dobrovoljnog vatrogastva pozitivno utječu na razvoj djece te da voditelji vatrogasne mladeži ne posjeduju potrebne pedagoške kompetencije. Ispitanici nemaju usuglašena razmišljanja o povezanosti broja djece uključenih u dobrovoljno vatrogastvo i broju dostupnih slobodnovremenskih aktivnosti, ali dijele mišljenje da se djeca u dobrovoljna vatrogasna društva uključuju po uzoru na blisku osobu.The subject of this thesis regards the childrens’ activities in volunteer fire departments and belongs to the field of leisure time. According to Croatian firefighting association’s data, more than 17 000 children across the Republic of Croatia participate in the volunteer fire departments’ activities. Considering the large number of children who participate in the voluntary firefighting activities, it is necessary to explore those activities from a pedagogical aspect, and the recommendation is to represent them in some of the future pedagogical manuals. The paper consists of theoretical and empirical parts. The theoretical part provides the historical overview and legislation of voluntary firefighting activities, and describes the training program for the mentors of junior firefighting. The theoretical part also contains the terminological determination, historical development and pedagogical aspect of leisure time, as well as the description of voluntary firefighting as a leisure activity. The empirical part presents the results obtained by examining mentors of junior firefightings’ about activities for children in volunteer fire departments and their implementation. The data was collected through focus groups. The participants in two focus groups were the members of the Volunteer fire department Črnomerec and of the Volunteer fire department Granešina. The results show that the voluntary firefighting activities have a positive impact on the childrens’ development and that the mentors of junior firefighting are not sufficiently competent in pedagogy. The participants’ opinions are not agreed on the correlation of the number of children included in voluntary firefighting and the number of accessible extracurricular activities, but they agree that the children join volunteer fire departments following the example of someone close to them