Enhancing equitable access to education for English language learners: evaluating the impact of a digital multilingual STEM resource in Canada

In Canada, the substantial increase in English language learners has underscored the pressing need for educational resources that enable them to receive an education appropriate to their academic level while learning the school language. This issue carries significant implications for equitable access to quality education. In this study, we describe a novel multilingual digital resource for grades 6-9 in STEM. The resource offers content in the school languages as well as in Dari, Tigrinya, Arabic, Somali, and Spanish, among others. We examined the factors influencing the use and appreciation of this resource and its impact on students' attitude towards STEM. This study involved 15 teachers and 161 students from three Canadian provinces. We used data collected by the platform over two years, complemented by student questionnaires, to investigate the relationship between teacher investment in the resource and students' attitudes towards its content, the relationship between students' attitudes and their resource use, and the impact of language availability on students' use of the resource. Our results reveal that using student language as a content transfer tool is a powerful strategy for maximising student engagement in the resource but that the teacher plays a key role in its effectiveness.