A library for teachers. Practical and scientific pedagogy from the United States at the São Paulo State Normal School in the 1880s

ABSTRACT This article has as a general theme the transnational circulation of pedagogical knowledge. It takes as a documental source American books that integrate the Paulo Bourroul collection, originated from the library of Normal School/Caetano de Campos Normal School, donated to Faculty of Education/USP, in 1976. In an exploratory perspective, the analysis of this intellectual, social and cultural arena where knowledge moves, focuses on works in circulation in the last decade of the Monarchy government. The inventory of books allowed identify majority tendencies: in the practical scope, the process of the objective method got legitimacy through different routes of circulation; in the scientific scope, Pedagogy has supported in principles formulated by Psychology in order to describe the operation of intellect in the production of ideas and convictions and elevated the goals of the pedagogical field beyond the instruction of subjects.