LIFE EDUCATION AS A PARADIGM FOR QUALITY IN EDUCATION (SECONDARY EDUCATION)

Shengming education (hereafter: life education) is widely accepted in the Chinese speaking communities, namely, China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan. It is chiefly addressed to primary and secondary education, and is gradually extended to pre-school and post-secondary education. Unlike subjects like language and science, life education does not have a well-defined curriculum and method of assessment. Its less well-defined structure has both strengths and weaknesses. For instance, its less well-defined structure challenges the tendency of categorization and instrumentalism of mainstream education. On the other hand, this may be too arbitrary, for when everything is life education, life education is nothing. This paper considers that life education can be a paradigm for quality in education, for it is basically a form of reflexive modernity that can accumulate spiritual capital for individual and social transformation, on the condition that life education is not employed as a remedy in order to maintain the status quo.