Purpose: The main purpose of this research isto understand pre-service social studies teachers’ perceptions of social problems.Design/Methodology/Approach: The phenomenological design was employed in order to investigate pre-service social studiesteachers’ perceptions of social problems. Participants are consisted of eight pre-service social studies teachers. Data wasobtained in the fall semester in 2016-2017 academic year. Semi-structured interviews were used as data collection tool. Theinductive analysis approach was adopted to analysis data.Findings: As a result of the research, it was revealed that there are similarities between the pre-service social studies teachers’perceptions of social problems and functionalist (structuralist), confrontational, symbolic interactionist and social constructivisttheories.Highlights: It was concluded that pre-service social studies teachers’ perceptions of social problem are shaped by differentresources such as family, culture, political groups, and mass media. Besides, it was found that pre-service social studies teachersdid not feel that they have enough skills and experiences about how to teach social problems in the courses.