Representations of Canada’s role in the War on Terror: the fantasized nationalist narrative

Abstract

This multi-method study is based on data collected from 99 written narratives, four in-depth semi-structured interviews, and demographic questionnaires. It depicts a particular framework in which a diverse group of university students represent Canada’s role in the War on Terror. The study reveals how these representations assist in the imagining of Canada as a peacekeeper and peace-loving nation. These presumably benign representations of the war and peace produce banal nationalism, and have implications for both students’ imagination about war and peace and for peace educators. This contributes to the importance of critical peace pedagogy in teaching students the relationships of banal nationalism, wars and peace.

Keywords:

• War on Terror
• peacekeeper
• representations
• critical peace pedagogy
• Canada