“Adorned with modern concepts”: circulation of foreign references in the Apostillas de pedagogia, by Balthazar Góes (1905)

ABSTRACT This text aims to analyze the circulation of foreign references present in the Apostillas de Pedagogia (1905), by Balthazar Góes, a teacher at the Normal School “Ruy Barbosa”, in Aracaju/SE, at the beginning of the 20th century. It starts from the initial assumption that the institutionalization of the intuitive method was done through didactic manuals, teaching programs and newspapers, in view of the government program for educational renewal in Sergipe. During this period, the intuitive method was seen as a milestone in a modernizing project for Brazilian primary education. Thus, this teacher’s contribution is not limited to reading and citing international references on the intuitive method, but is the result of a collective process, modeled by several groups that created repertoire and performances, in the terms of Faria Filho (2012), Tilly (1995) and Alonso (2012). In line with the guidelines of modern Pedagogy, the knowledge transcribed in the Apostillas de Pedagogia allowed an analysis of the circulation of foreign references, especially those linked to the work Lesson of Things, by Norman Calkins (1886) and Pestalozzi’s publications (1996), present in the dissemination of the intuitive method in Brazil and Sergipe. Therefore, Balthazar Góes performance in the production of the Apostillas de Pedagogia (1905) and their dissemination in the classroom manifest themselves as performances of a specific “cultural repertoire”, influenced by foreign references.