MAT Diversity & Inclusive Practices 3 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: A school's curriculum centers primarily on European American history and literature. This reflects which concept?
- Multicultural education
- Eurocentric curriculum (Correct answer)
- Anti-bias education
- Critical pedagogy
Correct answer: Eurocentric curriculum
A Eurocentric curriculum privileges European perspectives and histories while marginalizing contributions of other cultures.
Question 2: Which approach best supports a student who is deaf and uses American Sign Language (ASL) as their primary language?
- Treating ASL as a deficit to be remediated toward spoken English
- Recognizing ASL as a full language and incorporating bilingual-bicultural supports (Correct answer)
- Requiring the student to lip-read in all instruction
- Placing the student in a self-contained special education classroom exclusively
Correct answer: Recognizing ASL as a full language and incorporating bilingual-bicultural supports
The bilingual-bicultural approach recognizes Deaf culture and ASL as assets, supporting academic and identity development.
Question 3: A student discloses that they are undocumented. Under federal law, what is the teacher's obligation?
- Report the student to immigration authorities immediately
- Deny enrollment until documentation is provided
- Continue providing equal educational opportunity; schools may not deny enrollment based on immigration status (Correct answer)
- Transfer the student to a specialized program
Correct answer: Continue providing equal educational opportunity; schools may not deny enrollment based on immigration status
Plyler v. Doe (1982) established that public schools must provide equal access to education regardless of immigration status.
Question 4: Which instructional strategy involves grouping students by mixed ability to leverage peer learning across diverse skill levels?
- Homogeneous tracking
- Heterogeneous cooperative learning (Correct answer)
- Pull-out intervention
- Tiered acceleration
Correct answer: Heterogeneous cooperative learning
Heterogeneous cooperative learning groups students of varying ability so peers can scaffold each other's learning.
Question 5: A teacher uses 'funds of knowledge' from students' home communities in lessons. This practice originates from which theoretical tradition?
- Behaviorism
- Culturally sustaining/responsive pedagogy (Correct answer)
- Direct instruction
- Cognitive load theory
Correct answer: Culturally sustaining/responsive pedagogy
Moll et al.'s funds of knowledge concept grounds culturally responsive pedagogy by valuing students' home and community knowledge as instructional resources.
Question 6: A non-binary student requests that the teacher use they/them pronouns. The most appropriate response is:
- Explain that grammatical rules require singular gendered pronouns
- Use the student's requested pronouns consistently and correct mistakes respectfully (Correct answer)
- Ask parents for permission before complying
- Use the student's legal name only to avoid the pronoun issue
Correct answer: Use the student's requested pronouns consistently and correct mistakes respectfully
Using a student's correct pronouns affirms their identity, supports psychological safety, and reflects inclusive classroom practice.
Question 7: Which term describes a student's ability to move between two languages and cultural contexts with competence?
- Code-switching (Correct answer)
- Language interference
- Subtractive bilingualism
- Translanguaging suppression
Correct answer: Code-switching
Code-switching refers to the practice of alternating between languages or dialects depending on social context, a natural competence in bilingual individuals.
MAT Diversity & Inclusive Practices 3
A school's curriculum centers primarily on European American history and literature.
This reflects which concept?