The purpose of this article is to analyze aspects of the configuration mechanisms of the initial teachers’ formation, through the study of two formations schools at the end of the nineteenth century, one in the Empire Capital and the other in the Province’s Capital of Rio de Janeiro. Considered to be indispensible to form the teaching staff who would attend primary schools, the institutions in question went through several reforms which intended to widen their programs towards a teaching described as more scientific. The institutional displacements observed show investments in a way of form the future teacher in a more robust manner, suggesting equally the presence of tensions around the content and form of these measures.
normal school; teaching programs; scientific model; teachers’ formation