my module template_preprocess is not called
What you don't report in your question is the hook_theme() implementation, which is necessary for Drupal to know the theme functions a module implements. In your case, the array returned from hook_theme() should be something similar to the following (supposing that your module defines just a theme function).

  return array(
    'tocteasers' =&gt; array(
      'variables' =&gt; array('content' =&gt; 'the default value'),
      'template' =&gt; 'tocteasers',

      // Use it only if the template is not in the same directory the module is located.                         
      // This path should be relative to the Drupal root directory.
      'path' =&gt; 'the directory where the template file is located',
    )
  );


Notice that:


You call the theme function with theme('tocteasers', array('tocteasers' =&gt;  "whatever")), but the template file is not using $tocteasers.
The template filename must be the same used for the theme name; in your case as the theme function is tocteasers, the reported template filename must be "tocteasers". The extension ".tpl.php" is not used, as it is automatically added by Drupal when it looks for the template file. The only allowed difference between the theme name and the template filename is that the template filename can use "-" where the theme name uses underscores. This is because the "-" character is not allowed in a theme name, which must use the same characters used in a PHP function name. (This means it cannot start with a number, for example.)
If you are altering the code of an existing, enabled module, Drupal caches the data returned from hook_theme(); the result is that you had a theme function that was not using a template file, and that has been modified to use it, Drupal will not use the template file because it still referring to the old definition. hook_theme() is called in some specific cases, such as when a module is disabled, enabled, or updated. To force Drupal to update its cached data, you should disable and re-enable the module from the administration interface.
dsm($variables) could not show anything, if it is called too late, i.e. when the messages set with drupal_set_message() (the function used from dsm()) are already rendered. For those type of debug messages it's better to use watchdog(), which saves the message in a database table. Drupal allows to see those messages in admin/reports/dblog, and defines WATCHDOG_DEBUG for this very purpose.
Both template_preprocess_tocteasers() and hook_preprocess_tocteasers() are used, the difference is that template_preprocess_tocteasers() is defined from the module implementing the theme function, and it is called before hook_preprocess_tocteasers(). The purpose of the preprocess functions is not printing anything, but altering the variables passed to the template file, or the theme function. As consequence, the following code doesn't work as expected (i.e. "hello" is not in the output of the theme function).

function template_preprocess_tocteasers(&amp;$variables) {
  $variables['content'] = "something!!!";
  print "hello";
}