Ethnic tensions were central to Singapore’s birth as an independent republic, and they left the government in a quandary: how to talk about the country’s history when its birth was mired in contention between its dominant Chinese population and its large Malay minority? The surprising answer to this dilemma involved crafting a new national narrative that started in 1819, with the arrival of British imperialism. This move had the intended effect of excluding earlier centuries of Malay agency completely from the record, thus delegitimising the claims of one of the main communities in contention. The key element in the construction of the new national narrative was the implicit acceptance of colonial claims about Singapore’s achievements during the colonial era: that they were British achievements, building upon terra nullius. This mythology gave no credit or recognition to the Malays who had lived and traded in the region and on the island for centuries. This article explores the shifting politics of Singapore’s official historiography, paying particular attention to the role of scholars and education professionals in facilitating and reforming the national narrative. It posits that academic collaboration has been an overlooked feature of Singapore’s national myth-making. © 2021 Asian Studies Association of Australia.

Climate change is an important theme in the investigation of human-environment interactions in geographic education. This study explored the nature of students' understanding of concepts and processes related to climate change. Through semi-structured interviews, data was collected from 27 Secondary 3 (Grade 9) students from Singapore. The data was subjected to thematic analysis using Chi and Roscoe's conceptual change framework. The results showed that the students' base knowledge of climate change is composed of incomplete and incorrect elements built within coherent and structurally sound mental models. Due to the consistency of the models in expanding the logic, albeit erroneous, of explaining the climate change conundrum, it is posited that students are unaware of mistakes inherent in their judgements. Transformation of these mental models through multiple and deliberate refutations should be foremost in a geography teacher's pedagogical approach.