Open Classroom Climate and Democratic Education: Implications for Research and Practice. A Response to "Reassessing the Open Classroom Climate in Civic Education: Insights from 60 Studies"

An open classroom climate has numerous benefits for school-aged youth, and it plays an important role in school-based democratic and civic education efforts. After highlighting the strengths of Knowles and Chamberlain's review, I add to their contribution by enumerating several implications for contemporary open classroom climate research and practice. I suggest researchers and practitioners: (a) embrace pluralism in open classroom climate pedagogy and instructional contexts; (b) explore mechanisms driving associations between open classroom climate and outcomes of interest; (c) incorporate developmental theory; and (d) better account for contextual-ecological and measurement considerations. I also reflect briefly on open classroom climate research and practice within the current sociopolitical climate. As I work in tandem with the original review, my hope is this response drives interest in and understanding of open classroom climate research and advances the open classroom climate as an essential dimension of democratic education today.