Complex Instruction: Managing professional development and school culture

Complex Instruction (CI) is a comprehensive programme relating to curriculum development and instructional methodology, using multiple ability tasks and status interventions as key concepts. In 2006, at the end of a teacher training course, a group of primary school teachers decided to develop and experiment with original CI teaching units in their classrooms in Bologna and the surrounding province. The author developed a qualitative research project using ethnographic methodology to investigate and understand how this instructional innovation was proceeding and how it was being implemented by the Bologna teacher group. The paper critically reflects on the introduction of an alternative approach in an Italian context by examining how teachers did or did not reach new educational goals and how they coped with their schools’ structural conditions (such as schedules, curriculum demands) as well as cultural factors (such as professional values). The paper discusses how the CI strategy was debated and interpreted by the teachers involved, and the barriers and opportunities for implementation.