Teacher educators have been examining the professional status of teaching, including defining central practices of teaching, comparing teaching to other professions, and understanding teachers’ own perspective via interviews, surveys, and observations. The present study intends to contribute to the discussion by examining the meaning of teaching as reflected in teachers’ guides. I chose to examine teachers’ guides because they are known to have impact on teachers. Being a resource that is close to teachers’ everyday practices, curriculum materials inspire teachers with what they could do in their classroom. Educators intending large-scale educational reform pay attention to curriculum materials. Careful use of linguistic features therein could enhance thus further support teachers’ guides in effective communication with teachers.I investigated four 8 th grade Algebra teachers’ guides - TG, selectively chosen to represent variety. Drawing on positioning theory, I observed positionings regularly appearing in each of those four. Then I turned to idiosyncratically-observable positionings. Two research questions sought understanding of what teaching mathematics entails as presented in the TGs, hence how each guide constructs teaching mathematics. Last, I examined the guides’ linguistic features. This was for understanding the degree of teacher professional judgment acknowledged by the guides.My results indicated that, as constructed by each guide, teaching mathematics does not differ much across the guides. Those guides presented various types of knowledge as entailed in teaching mathematics. Compared to aspects on teacher professionalism in the literature, the guides occasionally addressed teacher research, interaction with colleagues, utilizing knowledge, and acknowledging uncertainty. In addressing these aspects, the guides in most cases did so with insufficient support. Examining idiosyncratic positionings, I found two types: i) positionings occurred idiosyncratic only, and ii) positionings occurred idiosyncratically in addition to their regular appearance. The latter can be classified into two types: a) one that succeeds the context of the communication actions associated with the general positioning, and b) one dissociated from the context. My linguistic examination of the guides suggested that they varied in their use of voice. Some are more directive, others are more suggestive, indicating different levels of acknowledgement of teachers’ professional judgment. In this dissertation’s last chapter, I present ways in which this study contributes to understanding of curriculum materials and of teacher professionalism. I end this dissertation with implications for curriculum authors, teachers, teacher educators, and researchers.
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