Political affinity and class community explaining open classroom climate among minority and majority adolescents

Political discussion is a cornerstone in modern liberal democracies, both inherently and through enhancing political self-efficacy, political interest, political trust, political knowledge, political tolerance, and political participation. Yet, political discussion is often found to be depressed by diversity of identities and opinions, which is a fact in modern societies. In this article, we investigate how schools succeed in their mandate to prepare young citizens to engage in political discussions through fostering an open classroom climate that encourages to discuss respectfully with people with different opinions. By using a nationally representative data of 5,274 15–16-year-old comprehensive school students in 63 majority language and 17 minority language schools in Finland, we assess the effects of political affinity in the class, belonging to the class, and minority status on open classroom climate. Furthermore, we test whether the possible negative effects of a lack of political affinity on the discussion climate can be mitigated by belonging or minority status. Based on the results, we conclude that belonging to the class and, to a slightly lesser extent, minority status predict open classroom climate, while political affinity is at its best a weak predictor. Yet, lack of political affinity cannot be compensated by other variables. Thus, we suggest that schools invest in enhancing feelings of belonging to the class to make open, and diverse political discussions possible and raise discussing citizens.