In this study, the sources of investigation were three manuals produced by History education teachers and published in 1935 (two manuals) and 1952 (one manual), as a result of two educational reforms: the Francisco Campos Reform (1931) and The Secondary School Organic Law - Capanema Reform. Recent research (CHOPPIN, 1998), has shown that these didactic manuals are outstanding elements in school institutions, and are considered important and substantial sources in the History of Education. Thus the objects of analysis were manuals directed toward the education of teachers, which because of their nature and content, are recognized as different from the students' textbooks. Understood as the "visible texts of the History Education Disciplinary Code" (FERNANDEZ CUESTA, 1998), these manuals were revealed as indicative of determined ways of thinking and the shared sentiment of the professional practice. Also, they permitted the distinguishing of evidence of the ways in which certain representations of History were conceived as scholarly knowledge. Therefore, the analysis of these three manuals allowed for the systematization of questions, such as certain conceptions of History, as well as "a practical-technical" knowledge or a set of teaching principles and strategies. This information suggests that this History with Pedagogy constituted the foundation of a new subject, History Education, and possibly that many of its elements started to contribute to the development of the professional identity of the History teacher in Brazil.
History education manuals; History teaching; History disciplinary code