Biography and expertise
Biography
Tracy Charlotte Young is a Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Education at Southern Cross University and Course Coordinator for Early Childhood Programs at the Melbourne campus. Across more than 30 years in environmental education and early childhood teaching, Tracy’s work has unfolded through classrooms, communities, and universities, shaped by a deep commitment to ecological justice and more-than-human relations. Tracy brings a relational approach to working within research and Initial Teacher Education.
Tracy's work contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals
Research
Tracy's research is widely published and recognised in Australia and internationally, moving across the rich and complex terrain of childhood-animal relations, multispecies education, environmental education, and childhood studies. Attuned to the uncertainties of ecological times, this work lingers with the question of how to live and learn well together. Recent projects trace intergenerational inquiries among children, parents, grandparents, and companion animals within homes and early childhood settings, noticing the subtle, everyday ways relations are made and unmade. Drawing on critical posthuman and postqualitative approaches, this transdisciplinary research brings together these theorisations to reimagine education as a relational, more-than-human practice. She also shares her research as a member of the Small Matters project at the University of Oulu, Finland and the Sustainability, Arts Research Lab at Southern Cross University, Australia.
Supervision
Tracy welcomes Graduate Research Doctoral applications in areas including early childhood education, multispecies education, childhood animal relations, nature pedagogies, environmental education, and sustainability. Projects engaging critical posthuman and postqualitative inquiry are especially encouraged.
Teaching
Tracy’s teaching engages three interconnected areas: philosophy (childhood theories, ecological ethics, and Indigenous perspectives), ecology (sustainability and nature pedagogies), and early childhood education (multispecies education, children, families, and communities). As a philosopher, academic, and higher education leader, Tracy has developed, implemented, and coordinated innovative undergraduate and postgraduate programs. This work brings together cross-disciplinary units spanning the natural and social sciences, creative arts, and Indigenous knowledges, all grounded in place-based and relational pedagogies. Her teaching philosophy is shaped by relational care, self-realisation, and active learning. These principles inform the design of real-world assessment tasks, case studies, provocations, and critical inquiry, fostering meaningful engagement for pre-service teachers.