Introduction

The process of ‘decolonizing’ the history curriculum in Malaysia and Singapore has been essentially the shift from a ‘Europe-centric’ to an ‘Asia-centric’ syllabus. Historians at the University of Malaya and University of Singapore, such as Cyril Northcote Parkinson and K.G. Tregonning, initiated the ‘decolonization’ of the history curriculum in the 1950s. Their changes were continued by local historians who came after them. They further ‘decolonized’ the history taught in the schools into ‘Malaysian-centric’ and ‘Singapore-centric’ syllabuses. The active involvement of historians at history departments in syllabus transformation has meant that curriculum reform has often reflected the debates historians have had among themselves. Malaysia and Singapore offer excellent case studies for historical comparative analysis of this process of historians influencing transformations in the history syllabus because the two countries have shared a common history.