THE STATUS OF ISLAMIC HISTORY IN THAILAND AND MALAYSIAN TEXTBOOKS AT THE SECONDARY LEVEL: A COMPARATIVE STUDY

Abstract

The main objective of this research is to study comparatively the status of Islamic History from the textbook at the secondary level of Thailand and Malaysia. This research had focused on Islamic History in the textbooks at secondary level in Thailand and Malaysia. The results of the research are 1) Islamic History in Thailand and Malaysia has been developed periodically even if the Malaysia's is more developed. In Malaysia, Islamic History subject was first announced in A.D. 1962 together with the first secondary school curriculum, while in Thailand, Islamic History is one of the selective subjects according to the Secondary School Curriculum Year B.E. 2521. Nevertheless, Islamic History in Malaysia has been more advanced because of its having better preparation in terms of academicians and budgets, 2) Islamic History in Malaysia has a certain scope as the Ministry of Education had assigned the Council of Language and Literature (DBP) to manage the Islamic History subject textbooks from the beginning of the selection of the authors to the step of publication, while in Thailand, the Khurusapha Publisher had been managed in publishing and distributing this subject. In case of the subject matters relating to history of Muslim countries in different regions in the textbooks of Social Sciences, it was found that they had been published by various publishers with differences in details, and 3) The Islamic History taught in Thailand and Malaysia was found in terms of its development, curriculum and current instruction, while the differences also were found in such aspects.