Tanken med följande kvalitativa studie är att visa hur ett antal förskolechefer motiverar sina medarbetare. Inledningsvis berör vi allmänt om vad som kan definieras som motivation, för att sedan gå in på motivationsteorier som vi anser är relevanta för vår studie. I vår teoretiska referensram använder vi oss av självbestämmande teorin (inre och yttre motivation), Maslows behovshierarki, Alderfers ERG teori och Herzbergs tvåfaktorteori. Vidare tar vi även upp om chefens roll vid motivation av sina medarbetare. Dock är det viktigaste utgångspunkten för vår studie sex faktorer som vi ur vår teoretiska referensram anser vara viktiga. Dessa faktorer är trivsel, missnöje, ansvar, självförverkligande, delaktighet och påverkan, kommunikation och feedback. Faktorerna som tagits ur vår teoretiska referensram kommer i sin tur knytas samman med det resultat vi har fått fram i vår studie.Sammanlagt har vi genomfört 10 semistrukturerade intervjuer med förskolechefer inom Borås och Skövde kommun, samtliga av dessa intervjuer utfördes på chefernas arbetsplats och några via telefon. Våra intervjuer hölls inom en viss struktur, men hade som avsikt att ge respondenterna en frihet då de svarade på våra frågor.Resultatet på vår studie visar att dialog och bekräftelse är två faktorer som är väldigt viktiga i chefers arbete för att motivera sina medarbetare. Dialog och bekräftelse handlar om att se och höra medarbetarna, vilket respondenterna tror skapar motivation och arbetstillfredsställelse.Studien är gjord på svenska.

In 2011 pre-schools began reporting to the Education Department and were then subject to the school law. Pre-school’s entry into the school system meant that the concept of education became part of the pre-school’s activities. This is also to be implemented into the preschool curriculum. This study has examined how pre-school teachers, pre-school managers and heads of operations interpret the concept of "teaching" in the pre-school context. Respondents that were interviewed were familiar with the subject, due to the fact that they are part of a nationwide teaching project and they themselves work on implementing the concept of teaching in their operations. The aim has been to establish how the three professions interpret the concept and work with it in practice. The study is based on a social constructivist perspective where we chose to focus on how the concept of teaching is constructed and reconstructed using the social linguistic interaction and the interaction between respondents. As a research method, we have used qualitative group interviews. The empirical data has been analysed using the theoretical lens of social constructivism. The results showed that the term "teaching" was unclear when it is referred to pre-schools and did not have a specific definition in the pre-school context. The concept was understood differently by the three professions. The respondents argued that the implementation of the concept in the pre-schools took place in diverse ways. They confirmed that it is a long-term process that will take time to fully implement. Another conclusion that the authors drew was 2 that there was a gap between practice and theory. This was because the heads of operations and pre-school managers had a theoretical view of "teaching" while the pre-school teachers had a practical view.