The Magnitude of Us: An Educator’s Guide to Creating Culturally Responsive Classrooms

WINNER! 2025 NCTE David H. Russell Award for Distinguished Research in the Teaching of English
WINNER! 2025 Society of Professors of Education (SPE) Outstanding Book Award
WINNER! 2024 Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Bronze Award for Education

Use this practical guide to build collaborative and equitable classrooms (7th grade–college).

This teaching guidebook will help educators navigate emerging best practices to center historically marginalized voices and perspectives in middle, high school, and postsecondary learning spaces. The author provides an accessible blueprint for utilizing histories, culturally responsive teaching, and community responsive pedagogy to build collaborative and equitable classrooms.

Inspired by research steeped in oral histories, Bunch brings forth lessons from educators, merged with voices of students, to share impactful classroom practices. The un/HUSH framework asks us to unlearn the “hush” often associated with marginalized histories and stories. The framework considers the following guiding principles: (H) using histories not told to inform teaching practices, (U) unlearning behaviors and practices that do not empower marginalized voices, (S) creating classrooms and spaces that allow for stories to be shared, and (H) encouraging healing to occur from connection, collaboration, and relationships.

Part narrative, part guidebook, The Magnitude of Us harnesses the collective power of us to improve outcomes for students.

Book Features:

• Guidance for novice and veteran teachers, with elements specifically designed for preservice educators.
• The use of histories and student voices to inform best practices for creating lessons and activities for middle, high school, and college classrooms.
• A teaching framework for amplifying student voices through perspective sharing and cultural responsiveness.
• An abundance of user-friendly scaffolding, graphics, lesson plans, and resources for implementation.
• A foreword by Dr. Joyce Ladner, civil rights activist, educator, and sociologist.
• Poetry by renowned poets Ashley M. Jones, Emily Pettit, Claudia Rankine, Mary Ruefle, Evie Shockley, Jordan Stempleman, Cole Swensen, and others.

Marlee S. Bunch is an educator, author, researcher, and curriculum and research developer for K-12 initiatives at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.