<![CDATA[This study aims to examine the implementation of local culture-based learning in building elementary school students' understanding of spatial structure concepts. Spatial structure understanding is a fundamental competency in social studies education that allows students to recognize patterns of land use, settlement arrangement, and the relationship between humans and their environment. However, conventional teaching strategies that rely on textual explanation tend to make this material abstract and difficult for fifth-grade students to internalize, particularly in rural schools surrounded by rich but underutilized cultural resources. This research employed a pre-experimental method with a One Group Pretest-Posttest Design, involving 22 fifth-grade students of SDN 197/III Kemantan Kebalai as the research subjects. The local culture-based learning model integrated local traditions, traditional settlement patterns, customary land-use practices, and indigenous spatial knowledge of the Kerinci community into the social studies learning process. Data were collected through pretest and posttest instruments measuring students' conceptual understanding of spatial structure, then analyzed using a paired sample t-test and N-Gain score to determine the magnitude of improvement. The results indicated a statistically significant increase in students' posttest scores compared to the pretest scores, with the N-Gain score falling into the moderate-to-high category. These findings suggest that contextualizing geographic and spatial concepts through familiar local cultural elements enhances students' meaningful understanding, engagement, and retention of abstract spatial concepts. The study contributes empirical evidence supporting the integration of local wisdom into elementary social studies curricula and offers practical implications for teachers seeking contextual, culturally responsive pedagogical strategies in remote and culturally rich school settings.]]>
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