This paper describes the subjectivist teaching paradigm, which has been introduced into a mathematics education course at the University of the South Pacific. Subjectivism integrates such aspects of current teaching philosophy as lifelong learning through student empowered, self-directed learning. Subjectivism, which is student centered, emphasizes the individual's subjective learning experience by adding feelings, interest, and motivation to enhance cognitive learning in constructivist classrooms. It involves engrossing socially constructed classroom activities to enculturate students into the skills and values of the content subject. Two humanitarian aims of subjectivism are subject enculturation and student empowerment. Subjectivism achieves these aims using similar enculturation processes in classroom activities that children experience in learning their own sociocultural processes and values. Enculturation processes include peer pressure, social recognition, compliance with authority, shared experience, establishing role identity, in-group bonding, and out-group competition. Hence, classroom activities focused on the subject content become authentic living experiences. This paper illustrates how these social constructivist activities, called surface purposes, are designed using three affect-structuring techniques (emotional anchors, motivators, and cognitive direction). It describes empowering enculturating activities that have been successfully used with education students and school children. (Contains 45 references.) (SM)