Complex Instruction (CI) is a comprehensive program of curriculum and instruction, developed by E. Cohen at Stanford University, which meets many of the criteria of Intercultural Education by equalizing rates of participation through multiple ability tasks and status interventions within heterogenous cooperative groups. In 2004, the Intercultural Centre of Bologna (CD/Lei) in collaboration with the University of Turin (prof. Gobbo) started a teacher training course in order to implement and disseminate Complex Instruction in some Italian schools. During this project a smaller group of Primary School teachers decides to design and experiment with original CI teaching units in their classrooms. I am developing a qualitative research project in order to investigate and understand how this instructional innovation is proceeding and how it is being implemented by the Bologna teacher group. The paper aims at problematizing the introduction of an alternative approach in an Italian educational context critically by examining how teachers achieve successfully (or not) the new educational goals and how they cope with their school structural conditions (such as schedules, curriculum demands) as well as cultural factors (such as professional values). I will make some initial comments on how teachers debate and interpret the CI strategy.

Ethnographic methodology (participant observation and interviews)

I will discuss how an educational innovation process cannot disregard the comparisons and debate which teachers are accustomed to. It entails taking into account the different ways of considering teaching and learning which we are supposed to be transforming. The Bologna teacher group is presented as a space where different cultural perspectives converge and are revised in an original way.