Abstract
Despite the importance of a democratic school context, little is known about its underling processes. The present research examined in how far a positive social-emotional classroom climate, namely perceptions of community in class and fairness of teachers, furthers students' democratic experiences in school (i.e., open classroom climate for discussion, opportunities to participate in school decisions). The analyses were based on a sample of adolescent high school students from the federal state of Thuringia, Germany (N = 1,286, 52.0% female students, Mage = 13.85). Multilevel structural equation modeling was applied in order to account for individual, class-average, and teacher effects. The results confirmed the importance of a positive social-emotional climate, both when examining students' individual and class-average perceptions. Significant relationships between students' democratic experiences and teachers' perceptions of the prevailing social-emotional climate, however, were only found among older students.