Abstract: Adopting educational hermeneutics, this article attempts to investigate Michael Winkler's social pedagogy, which is influenced by Kant's critical pedagogy, Humboldt's cultivation theory, Hegel's dialectic pedagogy, Schleiermacher's educational theory, Nohl's social pedagogy, Mollenhauer's social pedagogy and Korczak's respect pedagogy. The main contents of Winkler's social pedagogy include discussion about the possibility of social pedagogy, perspective of the construction of social pedagogy, analysis of the problems of social pedagogy, explanation of the action of social pedagogy, and the missions of social pedagogy in the future. Winkler's social pedagogy has the following advantages:first, it confirms the possibility of theoretical construction in social pedagogy; second, it guides the direction of theoretical construction in social pedagogy; third, it discusses the problems in the field of social pedagogy; fourth, it helps builds theory of educational aids; fifth, it points out the missions of social pedagogy in the future. However, the social pedagogy has the following problems:it falls into the crisis of improper application of education strategies; it fails to give a clear definition of subject concepts; and it needs more explanation about the structure of educational activities. Despite its problems, it can serve as a reference for the construction of social pedagogy, which helps scholars to understand the problems in social pedagogy and to point out the developmental missions in the future. Winkler's perspectives help to build the theory of social education and to improve the practice of social education.

Key words: Winkler, social Education, social pedagogy