Dr Bonnie McBain

What inspires me professionally and personally is the search for solutions to persistent environmental problems.

I have a multidisciplinary environmental background (Ecological Footprints, climate change, surface water quality, catchment management, sustainable forest management) but am particularly interested in transdisciplinarity - work that goes beyond traditional disciplinary boundaries.

My work aims to build solutions which increase the resilience of communities and the natural environment they rely upon for their welfare. My research, teaching and professional practice explicitly uses holistic/systems thinking to address the limitations of current environmental management.

I have a background in the development of sustainability policy especially for persistent, complex issues. I am interested in approaches which allow decision makers to make robust and defensible policy choices given the likelihood that future uncertainty will increase.

My expertise in strategic planning for an uncertain future includes

• scenario and futures analysis,
• environmental modelling,
• robust policy development,
• collaborative learning & participatory decision making
• mechanisms for adaptive management and
• the explicit consideration of alternate explanations, values and perspectives.

Although I research Ecological Footprints (the demand we have on Earth’s resources), what I am really interested in is  the growth of our collective Ecological Handprint (the positive impact we can have on the planet).

Teaching Expertise

I seek to empower my students to take an active part in the future of their communities, workplaces and family. My students have taken this challenge up in so many different ways. Here are just a few examples:

• Nelson Burand-Hicks now works as a Sustainability Officer with council and is also passionate about sea life in his local area.
• Aaren Drunis is the Founder and Managing Director of Sydney Sustainable Living and won 2015 AAEE NSW Environmental Educator of the Year  - Community Educator of the Year.
  

Since more knowledge has not lead to improved environmental practices, environmental education must be about doing.  In that process of participating, we come to understand more, care more and want to do more:

1. Learner-centred teaching – from my perspective it’s about learning not teaching. This slightly different perspective is subtle but critical. Basically this means that students will be explicitly practicing and implementing the theory that they learn through case studies and practical, vocationally relevant assessment tasks. Students are guided and supported throughout the course in achieving the learning but because I set up a collaborative learning environment, students and lecturer together can all support each other in this learning.
2. Critically reflective thinking – new university graduates are often criticized for not having the relevant practical skills required in the workforce to contribute autonomous expertise. In my courses I specifically address the critical thinking skills that you will need. Assessments are deliberately set in such a way that they will require students to reflect on their own assumptions, question them and consider the views of other that may differ from their own worldviews.
3. Collaborative learning – we all come to learning with different experiences, backgrounds and worldviews. As my courses progress, students have the chance to realise that diversity is what gives collaborative learning its strengths.  I encourage students to be courageous enough to be open to views they disagree with and to question their own assumptions to get the most out of the courses I teach. Working together to help one another in the learning process provides a mutual benefit to all involved in learning – students and lecturers. It also replicates what occurs in the workforce.
4. Participatory Learning – you won't come to one of my courses to hear lectures, take notes and then repeat what I have said to get high marks. Environmental education which is based on accumulating and sharing new knowledge has not lead to society doing things differently. What if we flipped that around? What if, in doing environmental work, we become more knowledgeable about sustainability? That's the premise of my teaching. To engage students in participation right from the moment they join a course. 
5. Experiential learning - in my courses students learn theories of practice but ultimately are always required to use what they have learnt in real world applications. This ensures that students can demonstrate knowledge and practical skills which are much needed in the workforce and our communities. Our learning experience is  focused on doing, not one of watching.
6. Place-based learning - my students are encouraged to apply their learning to places that are meaningful to them or allow them to contribute to a particular community requiring their skills. This is important for engaged learning because students can learn how to make very real and relevant contributions to issues that are important for them.

Research Expertise

Key research skills and expertise:

1. Dynamic Modelling: My modelling repertoire not only includes that of modelling future Ecological Footprints but also other factors relevant to environmental management and sustainability such as climate change, land use demand, land degradation, biodiversity, surface water nutrient pollution sources and sources of diffuse air emissions.
2. Resilience Thinking: My work aims to build solutions which increase the resilience of communities and the natural environment they rely upon for their welfare. A shift away from linear thinking and the assumptions behind incremental, controllable change are needed to make environmental governance appropriate to modern environmental challenges. We must also consider the affects of multiple scales (time and space), multiple worldview and contested interests.
3. Climate change: my current research involves the modelling climate change for the development of scenarios to mitigate future dangerous climate change. Although incredibly complex, I aim to condense and communicate the core understanding needed for responsible decision making.
4. Complexity theory and systems thinking: The increasing complexity of environmental management requires best practice approaches including transdisciplinary approaches, social learning, wholistic thinking, adaptive and flexible management and regional solutions etc.
5. Uncertainty and futures analysis: There is much evidence that the uncertainty surrounding environmental decision making has resulted in a postponement of decisions that, in reality, are required very urgently. My expertise for strategic planning for uncertain environmental management includes scenario development, continual and iterative collaborative learning that adapts to new knowledge over time, incorporation of mechanisms for adaptive management and the explicit consideration of alternate explanations, values and perspectives.
6. Collaborative community engagement: Participatory decision making accounts for societal values and choices relating to management are highly divergent and contested issues. It is important that environmental policy is developed in collaboration with relevant stakeholders so that 1) different perspectives and worldviews can add value and allow the incorporation of critical uncertainties 2) different stakeholders can have ownership of decisions 3) different stakeholders can take part in a process of social learning to develop a shared understanding and 4) policy tradeoffs and benefits can be negotiated.