This paper aimed to explore how preschool teachers' experience their strengthened teaching mission, specifically when working with scientific exploration. The study was based on the philosophy of the life-world, a branch of the phenomenological movement. Life-world philosophy focuses on the concrete reality humans inhabit and is responsive to its inherent ambiguity. The data consisted of written teacher responses and follow-up interviews. The findings showed a broad and multidimensional way of working with science and exploration in which embodied experiences and intertwined relationships were prominent. Teachers' notions of what constitutes scientific exploration and learning represent a combination of science as literacy and science as inquiry, emphasising democracy, aesthetics, experimentation and reflection. Being present and focusing children's relationship with the phenomena seem to be teachers' strategies of handling their strengthened teaching mission. (author abstract)