This is the Accepted Manuscript (Green OA) corresponding to the paper published as: Tovar-Gálvez, J. C. (2021). The epistemological bridge as a framework to guide teachers to design culturally inclusive practices. International Journal of Science https://doi.org/10.1080/09500693.2021.1883203 Education, 43(5), 760-776. The epistemological bridge as a framework to guide teachers to design culturally inclusive practices Julio César Tovar-Gálvez Department of School Pedagogics and Elementary School Didactics, Martin-Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg, Halle, Germany Franckeplatz 1/ Haus 31, 06110 Halle (Saale), Germany, joule_tg@yahoo.com ABSTRACT In culturally diverse classrooms, science teachers may plan and enact didactic practices that do not include traditional epistemologies. My purpose is to develop an approach, to support teachers in designing epistemologically inclusive didactic practices. For this, I propose the Epistemological Bridge frame (EB; Castaño, 2009) based on epistemological pluralism (Cobern & Loving, 2001) and interculturality (Aikenhead & Michell, 2011). Through the EB, teachers might guide students to participate in the domain of every epistemology and to produce explanations on the same phenomenon using each epistemology. I make the EB operational by formulating the principles of epistemological independence and epistemological similarity. These principles describe features of inclusive didactic practices. Finally, I discuss practical aspects that underlie the use of EB by teachers. Thus, I address the issue of access to traditional epistemologies, the criteria for choosing traditional content, and the ontological commitments of students. Keywords: interculturality, science education, teacher education Introduction Science teachers in culturally diverse contexts need support to include the epistemologies that coexist in the classroom in their didactic practice. A part of those epistemologies corresponds to the curriculum subjects (based on modern European culture), e.g. science. And the other part of such epistemologies comes from the communities to which students and teachers might belong (non-European cultures). In the case of Colombia, there are more than 140 indigenous communities, different Afro- descendant peoples, the Romani community, and diverse Mestizo identities (DANE, 2018). Nonetheless, this diversity does not only exist in Colombia but worldwide. And the question is about what kind of epistemological relationship teachers enact during the lessons (Mpofu, Otulaja, and Mushayikwa, 2014). My general purpose in this theoretical paper is to develop an approach, to support teachers to design epistemologically inclusive didactic practices (planning, teaching and assessment).