Center for Research on Teacher Development and Professional Practice (CRT)
The Education Center for Research on Teacher Development and Professional Practice (CRT) in the School of Education at the University of California, Irvine fosters collaborations among faculty, students, and practitioners on projects focused on a variety of aspects of teacher development and learning and on the study of teaching and teacher professional practice and of the systems in which these are embedded (including school and district leadership).
Our Goals
To advance research on teacher development and professional practice, school, and district staff participation, and student learning.
To promote research-based professional development programs across the teacher education continuum.
To address persistent problems of practice that teachers and school leaders face through research-practice partnerships.
To improve learning opportunities for marginalized groups, address racial and socio-economic inequities, and support educators to advocate for diversity, equity, and social justice.
Our Work
The research team conceives teaching and learning as situated in socio, historical, cultural settings, and utilizes a variety of research methods to unveil their complexity. Our work explores teacher thinking, identities, and socialization, classroom interactions and student learning, the design and study of teaching and learning environments, and of teacher preparation and professional development experiences. This work ultimately serves to identify powerful and promising new directions for research and practice in K-12 education.
Our Commitment to Partnerships
Most educational innovations rely on teachers as agents of change. At CRT, we envision research-practice partnerships as one vehicle for collaborating with teachers and school leaders to address persistent problems of practice. We work closely with the Orange County Education Advancement Network and share our research expertise on teacher learning and development.
Join Us
The Center welcomes collaborations from researchers, students, and schools! If you are interested in any of our projects, please email the PI directly. A list of current projects can be found here.
Prospective doctoral students: Every year we welcome applications to the School of Education PhD program. We are particularly interested in applicants with teaching background (in both formal and informal settings) and who share our commitment to improve the learning opportunities of marginalized groups. To learn more about our PhD program and application requirements, please click here.
