The purpose of this study was to explore perceptions of general elementary school teachers on social
studies teaching and learning of students from multicultural families as well as low-achieving/students with
learning disabilities(LD) through focus group interview(FGI). 12 teachers(6 who have taught students from
multicultural families-FGI #1, 6 who have taught low-achieving students/students with LD-FGI #2) participated
in the focus group interviews which were based upon three open-ended questions. After the interviews were
completed, the data were transcribed and coded by three coding systems. The major findings about students
from multicultural families were as follows: First, students have difficulties learning social studies due to the
influence of their parents, their external appearance, periods of their life spent in Korea/different countries, and
Korean skills. Second, teachers have difficulties teaching social studies because they don’t know how to support
to meet the needs of students from multicultural families. Third, teachers indicated that they need human,
physical and systematic support for students from multicultural families. The major findings about
low-achieving students/students with LD were as follows: First, low achieving students/students with LD have
trouble learning social studies because of their lack of motivation to learn, insufficient reading skills, and
cognitive deficiencies. Second, teachers have difficulties teaching social studies due to problems in administrative
system and not being able to set the same learning objectives for low-achieving students/students with LD as
those for typical students. Third, although teachers use various teaching and learning strategies for low achieving
students/students with LD, there is limited time to allocate instructional time for them.