This article starts with generally stating the significance, purpose, mission and content of social education in Taiwan, and is followed with three stages: “the emerging and embryonic stage”, “growth and legalization” and “transformation and diversification”, so as to explore the history and development of social education over the past hundred years.  Next, we proceed to analyze the current status and keynotes of social education as well as the changes in social education over the past hundred years. Lastly, we summarize from three perspectives “literacy to knowledge emancipation”, “the social education spectrum from mainstream to a diversified culture” and “civilized new resident education to civil education empowerment” and sum up our national social education development for the past hundred years through the veins underlying the transformation in order to propose an outlook and prospects for social education.

         Our social education was initiated and established at the birth of the Republic of China. In 1911, we established the Ministry of Education affiliated with the Department of Social Education. The term “social education” officially emerged in our country and was applied as such.

     Nevertheless, what is social education referring to? The answer to this question has been controversial at best. For academia, the definition of social education is widely viewed as the entirety or totality, continuance, organization and the planning for education for all, i.e. it only refers to educational activities and installation beyond school and family education. Taiwan’s social education laws, since being promulgated in 1953, underwent several provisional amendments and still was unable to clearly define social education. Current provisions only vaguely describe “by implementing total education for all and lifelong education as the purpose” as the (first article).  Although the Ministry of Education, in 1991, amended certain articles which defined social education as “organized education activity implemented for all citizens and beyond the scope of official education activity practiced by schools”. Regrettably, the amendment did not pass, and therefore it rendered the term “social education” unable to be distinctly and legally defined.

        A review of the second article within social education law initially promulgated in 1953 reveals that the content of the article suggests that “the subjects for social education implementation are our citizens. For those who have not received basic education and beyond the proper school age, they should be compelled to receive make-up education. For those who already educated, this would enable them with the opportunity of continuingly being educated and to obtain advanced education should they desire it”. From the above article, one can tell that social education does not include formal and basic education and that it is a made-up form of education and not formal education; instead it is a continuing advancement education outside of school education. Other than this, the lifelong education promulgated in 2002 pointed out that non-formal education refers to “Beyond the official education system, targeting special purposes or subjects, and it is designed to provide an organizational education activity” (the third article). Based upon this, this thesis proceeds to explore social education development in Taiwan over the past hundred years, and the scope of the research encompasses only non-official education beyond school education for which the organizational purpose is to serve all people as a lifelong form of education.