Courted a striking teacher (8)
I believe the answer is:
educator
'teacher' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'courted a striking' is the wordplay.
'striking' indicates an anagram ('strike' can mean 'hit' or 'disrupt').
'courted'+'a'='courteda'
'courteda' anagrammed gives 'EDUCATOR'.
(Other definitions for educator that I've seen before include "coach" , "Pedagogue, teacher" , "Teacher, lecturer" , "mistress, say" , "Instructor" .)