Study Of Oral Traditions In The Development Of Social Science Teaching Materials For Grade Iii Of Elementary School In North Bali I Wayan Mudana 1 , I Gusti Made Arya Suta Wirawan 1 , and I Putu Putra Yana Wardana 1 wayan.mudana@undiksha.ac.id 1 Universitas Pendidikan Ganesha, Indonesia Abstract. This study aims to describe the forms of the oral tradition and the results of a critical study of the oral tradition. This study uses a qualitative approach. The forms of oral traditions that are still developing in society are folklore, folk proverbs, folk songs, and folk games. Oral tradition is one form of culture that has an important meaning in the inheritance of values that can contribute to the development of social studies in elementary school for low grades. Which, of course, will also be able to also contribute to the development of literacy. The oral tradition that develops in society has a meaning that not only has a denotative meaning but also has a connotative meaning. The meaning of oral traditions in cultural systems is very complex, related to economic, political, socio- cultural, and environmental life. Keywords: critical; oral; study; social; tradition 1. Introduction Balinese society is an open society. The openness of the Balinese people has not only colored the multiculturalism of the Balinese people but has also caused the erosion of the traditional culture of the Balinese people, one of which can be seen in the existence of the oral traditions of the Balinese people. The erosion of oral tradition is also caused by the exclusion of oral traditions in social studies learning in elementary schools. The phenomenon causes the marginalization and alienation of oral traditions and the destruction of cultural values and people's personalities. This phenomenon has prompted various studies of oral traditions. This can be seen, for example, from a critical study of oral traditions in the development of maritime literacy in elementary school students [18]. The study revealed the potential for oral traditions to be used as a basis for developing elementary school social studies teaching materials. The development of such an elementary school social studies learning model is a systemic effort to counter colonialist and American-centric social studies education, as stated by [21]. Especially in social studies learning during the New Order, which was centralistic. This is in line with the view of [7], who stated that during the New Order era, we as social science thought institutions had been weakened through authoritarianism so that there is no tradition of scientific autonomy (2016: 3-4). This idea is in line with the development of a local culture-based learning paradigm. Because oral traditions contain values and moral messages that can support learning development, as the study conducted by Een Syaputra (2020). In the context of the ICLSSE 2021, September 09, Singaraja, Indonesia Copyright © 2021 EAI DOI 10.4108/eai.9-9-2021.2313674