Significant changes have marked Brazilian education in the period focused on by this research. Aiming to understand the configurations of the teaching profession in that period, this work focuses on the issue of the school success in the area of literacy by means of an analysis of the practices of literacy teachers who were at work between the 1950s and 1980s. The research is based on life-history accounts. The study aimed at describing the various experiences of these teachers identifying the knowledges and practices that sustained their successful literacy work as well as the various factors of a social, religious, political, familiar or other nature that, in the history of each of these teachers, favoured the development of a pedagogical style of literacy particular to each one of them. Despite the peculiarities and originality of each history, the success in the literacy process, as the defining feature of the profile of the four teachers, results from two main aspects: first, the autonomy that each one managed to keep in the development of his/her teaching work, particularly in the organisation of the teaching practices that indicated greater chances of a pupil's learning to read and write; second, their trust in the capacity of every child for learning, independently of his/her social, economic and cultural conditions. Based on this evidence it is argued that the success of the pedagogical work, particularly during the early years of schooling, lies in an ethics of the teaching work with a double implication: first, it requires the teachers' dedication to their pupils, and second, it requires respect for the work of the teacher, so that she/he can maintain her/his autonomy and inventiveness. These aspects indicate the need for reflection on teaching work and a review of current teacher education policies, particularly the policies targeted at teachers working with literacy practices. (Contains 20 footnotes.)