Heike Fleßner (14 April 1944 – 2 February 2021) was a German educationalist and professor, whose work focused on social education and social work. She was a Professor of Social Pedagogy at the Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg from 1996 until her retirement in 2009. Her scientific work focuses on analytics and conceptual developments in the field of gender- and diversity-conscious social education. For many years, Fleßner was involved in social policy and the institutional anchoring of public toddler care and early childhood education (crèche and kindergarten).
Career
Fleßner was born in Esens, East Frisia, Hanover, Prussia. From 1966 to 1971, she was a secondary school teacher. She later became a scientific assistant and then a director of studies at the University of Oldenburg. In 1980 she earned her doctorate degree from that university, studying the development of public preschool education in rural areas in Germany from 1870 to 1924. Her habilitation in 1994 – she received a venia legendi for educational science with a focus on social education, also at the University of Oldenburg – dealt with the topic "Motherhood as a profession: historical findings or current structural feature of social work?" In 1996, Fleßner was appointed by the university as a lecturer and Professor of Social Pedagogy. The following year, in 1997/98, she was a visiting professor of women's studies at Towson University in Maryland in the United States.
Fleßner was a co-founder of Gender studies at the University of Oldenburg, which began offering a Master's degree in Gender Studies in the 1997/98 school year and BA in Gender Studies beginning in 2007/08, and of the university's Center of Interdisciplinary Research on Women and Gender (ZFG) which opened in December 2000, and which she directed until her retirement in 2009.
Heike Fleßner died on 2 February 2021, at the age of 76.
Memberships
From 1985 to 1991, Fleßner was a member of the City Council of Oldenburg focusing on urban development planning and youth welfare policy, specifically public early childhood education (crèche and kindergarten). Since 2013, she has served as the regional chairman of the Landesverband Niedersachsen pro familia, the German Association for Family Planning, Sexual Education and Sexual Counseling, beginning as deputy state chairman in 2009.
She is a board member of the Bertha Ramsauer Foundation in Oldenburg, and a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Center for Women and Gender Studies (ZIF); the center is jointly supported by the University of Hildesheim and HAWK Hildesheim / Holzminden / Göttingen.
Publications (selection)
Books
Familiengerechte Hochschule. Daten – Herausforderungen – Perspektiven (gemeinsam mit Karin Flaake, Angelika Müller, Juliane Pegel). Oldenburg: BIS-Verlag 2008. Mütterlichkeit als Beruf: historischer Befund oder aktuelles Strukturmerkmal sozialer Arbeit. Oldenburg: BIS-Verlag 1995. Untertanenzucht oder Menschenerziehung? Zur Entwicklung öffentlicher Kleinkinderziehung auf dem Lande (1870–1924). Weinheim und Basel: Beltz 1981.
Significant editorial work
Jungenarbeit. Dialog zwischen Praxis und Wissenschaft (gemeinsam mit Michael Herschelmann und Detlev Pech). Oldenburg: BIS-Verlag 2005. Societies in Transition – Challenges to Women's and Gender Studies (gemeinsam mit Lydia Potts). Opladen: Leske und Budrich 2002. With an introduction by Heike Fleßner and Lydia Potts.
Significant articles (textbooks and manuals) Geschlechterbewusste Pädagogik im Kontext diversitätsbewusster Pädagogik. In: Leiprecht, R./ Steinbach, A. (Hrsg.): Schule in der Migrationsgesellschaft. Ein Handbuch. Bd. 1: Grundlagen – Diversität – Fachdidaktiken. Debus Pädagogik: Schwalbach/Ts. 2015, pp 305–323. Geschlechterbewusste Soziale Arbeit. In: Enzyklopädie Erziehungswissenschaft Online (EEO), Fachgebiet Soziale Arbeit/Soziale Arbeit als Profession, hrsg. von W. Schröer und C. Schweppe, Weinheim und Basel: Beltz Juventa 2013, (www.erzwissonline.de: DOI 10.3262/EEO14130279) Adoleszente Elternschaft (Lexikonartikel). In: Ehlert, G./Funk, H./Stecklina, G. (Hrsg.): Wörterbuch: Soziale Arbeit und Geschlecht. Juventa: Weinheim 2011, pp 18–20. Geschlecht und Interkulturalität – Überlegungen zur Weiterentwicklung einer geschlechterbewussten interkulturellen Pädagogik. In: Leiprecht, R./ Kerber, A.: (Hrsg.): Schule in der Einwanderungsgesellschaft. Ein Handbuch. Wochenschau-Verlag: Schwalbach/Ts. 2005, pp 162–179. Women's Studies (Lexikonartikel). In: Kroll, R. (Hrsg.): Lexikon GenderStudies. Stuttgart/ Weimar: Metzler 2002, pp 408–410.