Courted a strange teacher (8)
I believe the answer is:
educator
'teacher' is the definition.
(someone who educates)
'courted a strange' is the wordplay.
'strange' indicates anagramming the letters.
'courted'+'a'='courteda'
'courteda' is an anagram of 'EDUCATOR'.
(Other definitions for educator that I've seen before include "coach" , "mistress, say" , "One who teaches others" , "master, say" , "Pedagogue, teacher" .)