This article illustrates how a university-community partnership incorporated creative, non-text based approached in to adult literacy work to contribute to the efforts of creating greater equality and peacebuilding in Northern Ireland. The university-community partnership, known as the Literacy and Equality in Irish Society project (LEIS), was based on the fundamental belief that low levels of literacy amongst adults was one factor contributing to inequalities and violence in Irish society and therefore, literacy practice had to be re-contextualised within an equality and peace building agenda.
The project aimed to explore how more creative approaches to literacy practice could assist literacy educators and learners to explore more deeply and provocatively, the inequalities and mistrust perpetuated in Northern Irish societies that negatively affect people’s their lives. As arts-based adult educators around the world have argued the arts - and I will refer to these as creative methodologies or practices - are powerful means to deal with embedded, problematic cultural, political, social and/or religious beliefs. They can also provide imaginative and creative alternatives to normative literacy approaches that often simply revolve around reading print texts. I would argue that in the case of Northern Ireland, to be even more effective, literacy educators should understand and learn to use these new methods.
I begin with a brief background of the context of Northern Ireland. This discussion is by no means exhaustive nor does it capture all the complexity of Northern Ireland’s so called recent conflict. What it does do, however, is to provide a snap shot of the fragile context in which literacy practitioners, and their academic partners are engaging with a post-conflict situation. Following this, I provide a description of the LEIS project, locating myself in this work and discussing in more detail, the nature of the community-university partnership. From there, I provide an example of how a particular methodology was used and by examining comments of the various people involved, show how these new approaches to literacy learning helped them locate themselves in the conflict. Although not without their challenges, I argue that these methodologies provided new ways for expressing inner feelings and in many ways, a much more creative, engaged and informed understanding of conflict and peace building.
Peacebuilding in the Irish Context
Northern Ireland’s conflict is a tangled web of interrelated questions around how social and economic inequalities especially in the field of employment can be tackled, religious and cultural differences accommodated and diverse political aspirations understood and worked through in a deeply divided society. Darby (2003) noted four issues - politics, violence, community relations and inequality - as having become particularly intractable. As a result Northern Ireland and indeed other parts of the islands of Ireland and Great Britain have over the last three decades experienced rioting, street fighting and bombing between ‘hostile’ groups in various religious, cultural and political camps. These violent and deep-rooted confrontations became known as ‘the Troubles’. The result of this protracted conflict is that many people have known little save violence and distrust, high levels of economic and social deprivation, restricted access to education, and exclusion from any type of political system that they felt valued and respected who they were or their democratic freedom. But in the 1990s a peace process was ushered in offering a new kind of environment where these issues underlying the Troubles could be at least talked about if not yet fully addressed or acknowledged. Today, Irish society is involved in a process that is seeking to help people from all sides of the divide to live together through developing a shared understanding of each other’s political, cultural, social and religious beliefs and building stronger cross-community cohesiveness. It concerns not only post-conflict reconstruction, but also prevention of the recurrence of violence and assistance with the transition from conflict to a self-sustaining, and durable peace.
This process is popularly known as ‘peacebuilding’ although there is in fact little agreement about what that term truly means. Common definitions associate it with strengthening the relations and positive patterns of engagement between individuals and groups (Hamber & Kelly, 2004). Given the grand scope of peacebuilding, it cannot be viewed as a mechanistic or short process but rather, must be seen as a long and complex process that draws on a wide range of human capabilities and in our case at the university, focuses on creating opportunities for education and learning. Lederach (2005) views peacebuilding as a way of envisioning new and dynamic patterns of relationships and developing new forms of engagement, as well as the courage to pursue the concretisation of a peaceful, caring vision of the world. It also speaks to what is possible in terms of the creation and re-creation of human societies, and imagines new actions and ways of working together. Thus, while peacebuilding may emerge in reaction to a situation of (post)conflict, as in the case of Northern Ireland, it seeks to be proactive in laying the foundations to prevent conflict in the future and in this sense, I would argue it can be seen as an essential life skill. In workplaces, homes and communities, and in education and learning environments, the process of peacebuilding can play a role in transforming the present and moving people towards a future with greatly reduced incidences of conflict.
Peacebuilding scholars and practitioners recognise that a movement away from conflict, violence and inequality towards sustainable peace requires more than simply cognitive, rational engagement with ideas (Hamber & Kelly, 2004, Lederach, 1997). The understanding that peacebuilding transforms the cognitive domain of learning, and affective modes of expression provide a core justification for a focus on adult literacy education using alternative creative, cultural methods.
In addition to the lack of understanding about the value of creative practice, there has also been little recognition of the relationship of peacebuilding and adult literacy vis-a-vis conflicts such as Northern Ireland. Indeed peacebuilding has not before been identified as part of the adult learning curriculum. In other words, the opportunities to connect adult literacy and peacebuilding to challenge the problematic of a society so deeply divided by religion and politics, but also class and gender and had not been previously realised.
Literacy and Equality in Irish Society project (LEIS)
The LEIS project brought together a number of partners with an interest in literacy to experiment with some new creative/non-text methodologies. The two academic partners were the University College Dublin, a centre for research and teaching on equality, and the School of Education at Queen’s University Belfast, a provider of tutor training in adult literacy, which came together with literacy groups across the various communities. Together the partners pooled their skills and knowledge to improve educators’ and learners’ understandings about how to better learn about and from experiences of inequality in society and its negative effects on their own lives as well as lives of others as a contribution to the larger peacebuilding process in Northern Ireland. In addition to introducing and training educators to use various creative, non-text methods to engage the learners in a very different type of cross-cultural learning experience, the LEIS project included an action research component and I draw on some of the findings of that collective process.
Each of the partners had a particular contribution to make to the project. The university possessed a well-developed understanding of theoretical bases of adult literacy, equality, peace, as well as using creative, and engaged arts-based adult education practices. Moreover, the university had a background of working with literacy educators through initial and ongoing professional development programmes. Other community partners had a particular expertise in the more formal management and delivery of adult literacy programmes and they were able to assist with the identification of groups where teachers and learners were already working together across the diverse and ‘troubled’ communities of Northern Ireland I spoke of above and will discuss in more detail shortly.
My own involvement in the project began with preparing and submitting the application for funding and later becoming Project Coordinator. The project extended over a two-year period and employed three full time staff (two development workers and a Secretary). The work was supported through a management committee that included representatives from various providers including the Waterford Institute of Technology, a higher education institution involved with training teachers and the National Adult Literacy Agency for Ireland (NALA) an independent charity committed to making sure people with literacy and numeracy difficulties can take part fully in society and have access to learning opportunities that meet their needs. The provision of financing from the European Union as well as the British and Irish government’s peace funding for Northern Ireland was also important in allowing ideas and theories to be translated into practice. The partners worked together using their particular expertise to develop an ongoing dialogue about literacy and equality linked specifically to the peacebuilding process in Northern Ireland.
One way in which the above was achieved was by bringing groups of students to come together, using a variety of creative practices to discuss their feelings of disempowerment as a result of living and growing up in a conflict-ridden society where individuals had experienced inequalities attributed to their religion, class and/or gender. In our literacy work, be believed that creative arts could provide modes of expression that could go beyond words and give voice to deeply engrained thoughts and feelings. But like various other scholars such as Clover and Stalker (2007) we too believe that arts-based practices are ‘cognitive’ practices so we developed our creative methodologies to stimulate dialogue and critical discussion as well as encouraging the imagination and in our case, the right to imagine a conflict-free world. This coming together of the rational, cognitive, spiritual, imaginative and affective arguably mirror our real-life experiences.
The creative, non-text approaches used in the project included image theatre, visual arts, storytelling and music. The students shared their stories, visually creating, singing or acting-out lived, painful experiences of inequality in a creative journey of literacy development. These imaginative, non-text based activities can be valuable processes in themselves that not only prepare individuals for reading and writing, but we felt could make a real contribution to peacebuilding as others have in other places. For example, Barefoot Artists is a non-profit organisation that works with poor, violence-ridden communities around the globe using the arts to bring healing, self-empowerment and social change. It aims to bring the transformative power of art to impoverished communities through participatory and multifaceted projects that foster community empowerment, improve the physical environment, promote economic development, and preserve and promote indigenous art and culture (Barefoot Arts, 2007). Their creative methodologies have been used not only to overcome violence but also to make the foundations stronger for a more lasting peace.
Literacy programmes in Ireland have a strong basis in text-based curricula that often focus on individual assessment of learners. It can be argued that this text-based approach with its narrow range of what literacy skills are does not promote equality. In contrast, Howard Gardner’s (1999) work on multiple intelligences acknowledges not only the importance of verbal/ linguistic and logical/mathematical skills, but also the value of visual, musical and interpersonal skills in making sense of the lived world. Gardener’s theories of multiple intelligences provide a more pluralistic picture of intelligences as well as a holistic approach about how humans learn. In addition, Tisdell’s (2003) work outlines the value and power of various symbol-making activities and the importance of these experiences through ongoing creative activities in the arts. Problematically, adult literacy education programmes – like much formal adult education - have most often been perceived as ‘serious’ spaces of learning and as a consequence, many adults are unsure about their capacity to engage in creative practices and fear that enjoyment and play may not be effective means to becoming literate. Indeed, during the development of the LEIS project, it became clear that to help adults learn from creative methods there would be a need to explicitly emphasise the value of creativity and imagination in both learning and within human lives.
A further challenge in the LEIS project was to connect literacy discourse with an equality and peacebuilding discourse. Similar to the concept of peacebuilding, considerable controversy surrounds the meaning of literacy and how skills and competences can be developed (Crowther, Hamilton and Tett, 2001). How one defines literacy has implications for the development of literacy programmes including the content and approaches used for learning. Popular usage of the term literacy extends from the simple notion of the ability to read and write to a host of other ideas including the possession of complex multi-literacy skills which may include computer, technical, information, media, visual, cultural, financial, economic, emotional and environmental skills. Moreover, a review of the literature shows there is no single universally effective or culturally appropriate way of teaching or defining literacy. Rather definitions of literacy are viewed as a function of social, cultural and economic conditions with different discourses becoming dominant at different times and in different places. Writing about the meaning of literacy Crowther et al (2001) note:
Definitions of what it means to be literate are always shifting. It is socially constructed and cannot be seen outside of the interests and powerful forces that seek to fix it in a particular way. The common way to think about literacy at the moment is by seeing it as a ladder that people have to climb up (pp. 1-2).
Our project took the view that literacy is about acquiring a set of complex capabilities rather than a simple set of basic skills or a ladder to climb and that literacy is a key dimension of learning for community regeneration. Fundamental to the project was the idea that adult literacy is an equality issue often linked to traditional issues such as religion, class and gender in Northern Ireland and that these divisions in society are a manifestation of symptoms of inequalities that can contribute to the cause of illiteracy. There has been a radical rethink of the need to confront issues of illiteracy in national policies, which now recognise the importance of improving literacy for citizens who wish to actively participate in modern, industrial, democratic societies. However, while there is almost complete acceptance that literacy has a profound impact on life chances around the world, there is somewhat less agreement on how adult literacy learning should be developed. Freire and Macedo (1987, p. 6) argue that ideology, culture and power can limit, disorganise and marginalise more critical and everyday life experiences. They emphasised the need to move towards an understanding of literacy that encourages individuals’ critical thinking about the conditions of their lives. Indeed, so, as an integral part of the equality agenda, the development of literacy becomes an important tool in the construction of a more just and equal society.
Paulo Freire placed an emphasis on the arts in his teaching and work. He believed that adults could learn to read rapidly if reading were not part of a cultural imposition. Moreover, adults speak an extraordinarily rich and complex language that they can set down graphically with the proper tools to do so. In one particular example, Freire had realised that many Brasilian non-literates were so submerged in their daily struggles they had little or no awareness of whether or how they could change their lives. During their literacy classes, they resisted being told they had problems believing instead they were conditions of fate. In order to transform this debilitating notion Freire introduced the concept of culture. He used a series of the images of their lives drawn by a local artist to stimulate very different ways of seeing culture and talking about culture. By the time the group had gone through the series of 10 drawings, they had gain an enormous confidence in themselves, pride in their own culture and a desire to learn to read words and images. Boal (1979), also from Brazil, developed a process he called Theatre of the Oppressed. Using image theatre, he helped students articulate their experiences of specific inequalities and oppressions including situations of conflict in everyday life and in the community. In particular, this form of inter-active theatre aims to illuminate and challenge racial and class inequality.
LEIS set out to develop clearer links between an understanding of equality and practical approaches to reconciliation using creative methodologies. To do this, it applied an equality framework developed by Baker, Lynch and Cantillon (2004). The project focussed on four interrelated dimensions of their equality framework: respect and recognition; love, care and solidarity; access to resources; and power relations. These dimensions provided an opportunity to look at the economic, political and cultural dimensions of inequality as well as how the affective or emotional realm affects learning.
Universities and tutor training
The first step of the project was to focus on and train the tutors. Considerable responsibility is placed in the hands of tutors in Northern Ireland who are charged with the development of literacy skills and competences across communities. Moreover, while literacy tutors may work with some of the most marginalised groups in society, educational training programmes for them have not tended to focus on promoting and understanding of these inequalities and how the curriculum might assist learners to learn from their inequitable experiences. Neither has it focussed on the development of an understanding of peacebuilding and how this connects with literacy learning. For these reasons, the two universities proved to be excellent partners for the LEIS project. Queen’s University Belfast is a major provider of training programmes for teachers of adults that included a series of initial and continuing professional development courses in literacy and numeracy. In addition, it had already developed a number of programmes for teachers of literacy that included various arts based approaches. The Equality Studies Centre at University College Dublin had an interdisciplinary understanding of equality supported by ongoing research into connections between literacy, equality and peacebuilding. Their work is based in Freire’s principles of emancipatory literacy, grounded it in the everyday life situations of learners and wove into this fabric, creative practices. For the LEIS tutors, it was imperative to instil a full understanding of how inequalities adversely affect individual lives and how to learn how to apply the equality model and use a variety of new and creative teaching tools.
Over a period of three years, one hundred and twenty-five people attended short training courses organised in seven different locations in Northern Ireland through the university and college. The programme included seven continuing professional development courses each lasting ten hours and a further five courses where training was part of an initial and ongoing professional development course for adult literacy tutors and managers. Some of the courses included community activists and literacy volunteer tutors lacking formal education and training. Most of the courses were offered as accredited courses and approximately one hundred and seven individuals were awarded accreditation. The focus groups and seminars emphasised the need for support materials and resources for tutors and learners.
Specialist creative learning methodologists were engaged to develop training in the use of creative/non text methodology using drama, image theatre, storytelling and music. The expectation was that after experiencing and learning from the methodologies and equality framework, tutors could then use the innovative methods to engage with and empower marginalised literacy learners from across the divide in Northern Ireland. From this, a Resource Guide was developed. This Guide sets out a rationale and includes project aims as well as discussion of the equality framework and methodologies employed with practical examples of how to use the methodologies (Lambe et al, 2006). Many of the tutors who attended the workshops were already teaching in a variety of community contexts and following the training were able to try out some of the new methodologies.
Using Creative Methodologies
The LEIS project used the creative/non-text based methodologies to create spaces for the exploration of equality issues in learners’ lives. The methodologies were also intended to empower tutors and learners to discuss issues arising from the experience of conflict in Ireland.
Storytelling is one example of a creative method which can empower learners to understand inequalities experience in their lives and the lives of others. Individuals are asked to share stories from the past that highlight experiences of exclusion particularly those which refer to inequalities experienced as a result of the conflict situation. Very often these are stories had never before been spoken about and the need for unconditional acceptance and guarantee of confidentiality within the group was always discussed and agreed on in advance in our work. Group members are encouraged to think about real life stories both recent and in the distant past. Some examples of stories can also be given as these can assist individuals when selecting and preparing their stories. The possibilities are endless and can include both big events in people’s lives such as attending a court room or dealing with the impact of shooting incident or the effect of a bomb explosion to everyday issues such as not being about to travel to school or to visit a family member on the other side of the divide.
Individuals are placed in small groups of four to six and provided instructions on how to prepare and present their story. Before the story is told the group members are given guidance on, how to select their story, what bits of the story to tell, what to leave for discussion later, how to present their story and to link it to their experience of exclusion, how to listen and respond to stories etc; After the stories are told the group is given the opportunity to respond and to share similar experiences. Time was always given to considering what could be learned from the story and what might be done differently in the future.
Impact of methodologies on individuals
A variety of responses to the positive, but also the sometimes, negative impacts of the work were recorded and I share just a few here. One tutor commented on how attending had helped her develop skills and knowledge about new approaches to learning and how these could be used to facilitate understand about the causes and consequences of conflict. Through the use of stories her students had talked to her and in the group about real life experiences of unemployment, alienation, and isolation experienced. This led to a group discussion on issues such as the effect of unemployment on people of all religions, class and gender that united as well as divided individuals; many said it had enabled them to develop an understanding and empathy for other points of view. The creative/non-text approaches enabled them to discuss this issue in more interesting ways. Storytelling, for example, enabled the issues to be linked more closely to real life situations; the use of art, sculpture and drama allowed for a different way of representing feelings and experiences which often engendered feelings of hurt and shame where the individual lacked confidence to put feelings into words. These strategies were also seen as a more appealing way of engaging others and as a way of provoking discussion. A range of other skills that included bonding, inclusivity, working in groups and ability to empathise with others experiences of different situations was mentioned as spinoffs from being involved.
Another tutor who taught on a literacy programme for young men took along a sculpture of a man whose head was bowed. She had made it especially to discuss with the group. She believed that it was a good stimulus to discussion about guilt and wrongdoing as she was sharing her own feelings and thoughts with the group in a very open way. She felt having a concrete object made it easier to raise more complex issues about equality that were generally hard to do in other types of discussion. It was a good stimulus to get the group thinking, rather than asking the group to write down their thoughts, a strategy she felt would not have worked as it would have limited their thinking to what they could write. Commenting on the use of sculpture to explore inequalities, the tutor noted:
In the course I met with people from lots of different areas. I felt worried about making a sculpture about peace because I’m not artistic and I didn’t want to expose myself in front of strangers. Anyway we worked in groups and it was great because doing it together lead to lots of discussion. We found that what we made together was much more interesting than what we could have made on our own. When everybody talked about what their sculpture represented, you got right to the heart of things because it was a safe space and we were all able to speak honestly.
To my mind, this comment demonstrates how creative arts act as a stimulant and encourage individuals to open up and express their feelings on a range of topics which otherwise might be difficult to express. It indeed demonstrates how art can be used to share views, ideas, and feelings and to build a sense of cohesiveness or community. This may be particularly relevant for men of all ages who are very often unwilling to express their feelings within group situations.
Another tutor working in a rural setting used a collage to encourage students to represent their views about inequalities in their lives. What she found is that collage worked to enable students to think more deeply about issues, such as equality, but without inhibiting them in a way that writing down their thoughts often did. By using collage she discovered a new and powerful way of fully engaging learners that was both meaningful and evocative, thus enabling learners to participate more fully in the learning experience. This tutor reported that students worked well together and talked about their individual experiences using the collages as a media for the discussion. Issues discussed included their previous lack of education opportunities and their feelings of powerlessness in creating change. The tutor reported the discussion also revealed a lack of understanding arising from the religious and political division in society and the discussions about the collage provided a way of addressing these misunderstandings. For these students, putting pen to paper could be particularly problematic never mind writing about their feelings about equality. The discussions enabled them to approach things in an open and honest way and at the same time developed their confidence in speaking about issues usually not discussed.
For many tutors, the new creative methods enhanced their understanding about the causes of conflict and enabled them to confront equality issues about living in a society in conflict and how it had affected their opinions, attitudes, and ability to participate in education and schooling. They also felt that it had made them more confident about using the methodologies with their own students to help them resolve conflicts arising as a result of living in a community which was religiously segregated. One participant felt the training had provided her with some simple yet powerful exercises for conflict resolution. When she used them, she noted how even those with learning difficulties were able to easily understand the idea that you need to learn how to cooperate if you are going to solve conflict.
Other tutors spoke of the potential value of creative methods to create safe spaces for groups from both communities to explore equality issues impacting on their lives and to lead to an improved understanding of how a lack of literacy skills can create inequalities. For example, in the Irish context, Catholics very often did not perceive Protestants as people who had been disempowered through a lack of literacy skills and Protestants very often didn’t perceive Catholics as people who could understand their feeling and opinions.
But this cultural, religious divide is not just within the literacy learners but also, the tutors. They too come from the diverse communities and have been raised within the same context of fear, mistrust and disrespect. Therefore a powerful aspect of the creative methodologies training was that it enabled literacy tutors from the different sides of the community to develop new levels of cooperation and understanding. Moreover, as this tutor stated so emphatically, “I found working with tutors from other sides of the religious divide made me look at my own practices more openly. It was a bit uncomfortable to have the things I see as ‘common sense’ challenged, but it did improve my practice.” This is important in helping tutors understand, as alluded to above, the learners who come from different backgrounds, and who share different experiences, enabling them to if not value, at least be exposed to something they might find difficult to understand or easy to accept.
Finally, some tutors saw creative approaches as a way of democratising learning as well as working across national and global networks. Understanding difference at local level might enable learners to understand wider international issues about equality and peace-building and in so doing introduce a range of skills and competences which go far beyond issues and simply improving the literacy skills of learners. In the case of Northern Ireland, creative approaches enabled tutors and adult learners to face up to difficult issues in their lives and in so doing facilitate cognitive and affective learning which in turn empowered them to make real changes in their lives.
But as I noted above, the new methodologies presented some key challenges for the tutors. Firstly some felt that activities required a high level of preparation and might be perceived as ‘childish’ by learners, while others questioned the value of activities which were too much enjoyed by learners. This is of course, not uncommon and scholars have drawn attention to the derision and scorn many use to look upon the arts (Greene, 1995). Secondly, while tutors were very enthusiastic about incorporating these creative methods into their literacy practice of exploring equality issues more visually and imaginatively, they also indicated that ongoing advice and support was necessary to build confidence in their abilities to use the new methodologies. They also spoke of the need for a clear rationale to validate the learning in the eyes of managers and funding bodies. I would argue that these comments showed that while tutors were enthusiastic about the new methodologies they were also aware of the limitations and offered a critique highlighting a number practical problems that might curtail the power of the new creative methodologies if not taken into account.
Working in partnership to develop and improve learning
This project showed how working with partners across different sectors can facilitate the integration of new knowledge and ideas which in turn can improve professional practices. The use of creative approaches was ultimately able to change the ways teachers and learners thought about inequalities and peacebuilding. It also provided tutors and learners with opportunities to work together as researchers of ideas on equality and peacebuilding and the development of new learning practices. In this respect, one of the most significant achievements of the projects could be said to have been that of building greater insight and understanding of the causes and consequences of inequalities and the possibilities that exist for peacebuilding. The project’s approach to literacy work challenged the widely held view of deficit among learners and instead focused on people’s ability to do what they wanted in their lives. A tutor commented, ‘It opened my eyes and mind to what is possible through using other creative, non- text methods.’
The project was based on the premise that literacy is far more than a set of basic skills, but rather are a set of social practices. Adult literacy education is in itself an issue of inequality since adults with low literacy skills are more likely to be unemployed, be living on low incomes and experiencing poor health and early morbidity (Bynner and Parsons 2001; Hammond 2004; Raudenbush and Kasim 2003). Through the use of a ‘social practices’ account of adult literacy, rather than viewing literacy as something which is a de-contextualised, mechanical manipulation of letters, words and figures, literacy can be located in social, emotional and linguistic contexts. Literacy practices become more than just routines and skills and are better understood by teachers and learners linked to specific contexts which takes account of people’s feelings and values.
By focusing on equality and creativity, the project demonstrated how creative arts and non- text methods of learning can be integrated into literacy learning for peacebuilding.
The project also demonstrated how universities can work together in partnership to enhance creativity promote the arts and to develop new ways of working using the skills and expertise of partners across different sectors. In this project the focus was on connecting research on equality with new pedagogical approaches that would contribute to an evolving peace process. It also provides a transferable model that can be used to support other cross-departmental or inter university cooperation for the promotion of the arts in universities. It thus created a new opportunity for the universities in Ireland to get involved in peacebuilding through the promotion of arts-based approaches to learning. This particular approach to training teachers for a particular situation is perhaps just a starting point and might well provide opportunities to consider how creative approaches might be developed other professional programmes such as social worker and community work training.
Speaking about this approach to learning. Shor (1999) argued that ‘this kind of literacy … connects the political and the personal, the public and the private, the global and the local, the economic and the pedagogical’ (p.1) The challenge for the future will be to develop lifelong learning and literacy policies and practices which promote dialogue between different stakeholder groups and for universities to promote and engage in teaching and research which encourages dialogue that recognises the importance of the principles of equality and social justice as a core tool for promoting peacebuilding in Northern Ireland and fostering learning and development.
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