Centre for Research for Teacher Education and Development (CRTED)

The Centre for Research for Teacher Education and Development (CRTED) was established in 1991 as a faculty wide centre for research for teacher education. The Centre draws together diverse people, including graduate students from across campus, faculty, research assistants, principals, social workers, medical personnel,  and teachers.

Dr. Jean Clandinin, Director of the CRTED wins Huberman Award and releases a new narrative inquiry book!

Dr. Clandinin will be honoured with the 2013 Michael Huberman Award for Excellence in Research on the Lives of Teachers from the American Educational Research Association Lives of Teachers Special Interest Group. Her new book, Engaging in Narrative Inquiry, will also be released at the AERA conference in San Francisco at the end of April. 


Jean will receive her award on Sunday, April 29 between 6:15 and 8:15 pm in the Redwood Room of the Grand Hyatt Hotel. She will share her thoughts on the narrative concepts of personal practical knowledge. She will be joined by three respondents: Janice Huber (University of Regina), Elaine Chan (University of Nebraska at Lincoln), and Jerry Rosiek (University of Oregon). 



Click here for information on the 2013 Outstanding Teacher Education Doctoral Dissertation Award. Application deadline is September 30, 2013. 

The CRTED is pleased to announce a new doctoral student scholarship endowed by friends of Joy-Ruth Mickelson.

Click here for more information on this opportunity.

Details on the Mahatma Gandhi 2013 Summer Institute: Building Peaceful Communities are available here. 

Did you miss the first two seminars in the Reconsidering Teacher Education series? If so, click here to watch and listen.

Save the Date! Tuesday, May 7th from 12:30 to 2:00 pm Kris Wells will present the next seminar in the Reconsidering Teacher Education seminar series. Visit our Events page for more information on this seminar, and the overall series, as details are released. 

More About the Centre:

The Faculty of Education at the University of Alberta has developed and maintained strong graduate studies and research programs that place it in the forefront of graduate programs and research at both the national and international level. CRTED plays an important role in the Faculty’s graduate studies and research by serving as a faculty wide centre for research for teacher education and development.

The Centre has several objectives including:

  • Conducting research for teacher education. 
  • Providing a place to explore narrative inquiry and other research methodologies. 
  • Discussing what it means to teach and be a teacher. 
  • Collaborating with teachers, student teachers and faculty in the design and evaluation of pre-service teacher education. 
  • Supporting research through ongoing weekly conversations into issues surrounding research and seminars for graduate students, faculty, and visiting professors to share and receive response to their research. 
  • Assisting in developing funding proposals. 
  • Sponsoring the Horowitz Institute. 
  • Providing a supportive community for graduate students and faculty whose research interests include teacher education and curriculum studies.

Guiding Assumptions of the Centre for Research for Teacher Education and Development

Ideas, beliefs, and theories about teaching and teacher development, their nature and methods, are numerous, diverse, and often conflicting. The Centre intends to reflect this diversity by adopting a comparative, critical approach to research and development. This approach is embodied in the following beliefs about teaching and teachers:

  • "Teacher" and "teaching" refer to social and educational relations. There are many places where teachers work and teaching occurs. 
  • Much can be learned from a comparison of images of " teacher" and "teaching" in a range of social settings and cultures. 
  • Teachers are the single most important influence on the emotional, moral, aesthetic and intellectual qualities of education. Thus, school improvement is closely linked to teacher development. 
  • Teaching is a reflective activity that requires continuous adaptation, invention, problem defining, and problem solving. 
  • Teachers come to an understanding of students’ education when they have opportunities to think of themselves as reflective learners. 
  • Professional growth is a career-long process and many factors influence teacher career development. 
  • Wider social, organizational, and political contexts influence, and, in turn, are influenced by, the personal experiences of teachers.