This contribution aims to describe the benefits of research design based on situational epistemology, especially on the situational analysis (SA), on the example of ongoing research into inclusion. In it, interactions are primary. SA's "cartographic tools" make it possible to examine interactions in given situations (Clarke, 2005; Clarke & Friese, 2007). Thanks to this, complex phenomena such as inclusion can be investigated in a new way. Using an original research on inclusion in the Czech Republic as an example, this contribution demonstrates that inclusion is not a substance easily described, but rather a relationship field changing its forms in response to its actors’ behaviour and current circumstances (Clarke & Montini, 2014). Inclusion consists of dynamic relationship between an ideal, real circumstances and ways to achieve such ideal under the given circumstances. Such achievement has many shapes and thus can not be captured by description of objects. It can be expressed in relationships in the situation defined by time and space (Clarke & Montini, 2014). Situational analysis assumes creation of constructs as a tool for solving a problem at hand. It emphasises the meanings that arise in the process of coordinating human actions, and the discourses through which these meanings are negotiated. Finally, it offers “cartographic tools” (situational maps, socials worlds /arenas maps, positional maps) that are able to capture the complexity in other than linear-analytical ways (Clarke, 2005; Clarke & Friese, 2007). This approach allows for inclusion to be described as a complex of phenomena taking place with a certain historical preference but, at the same time, we can compare it with the results of research across different countries, such as Finland (Lakkala, 2019) and Slovakia (Sabo et al., 2018). A meta-analysis of research dealing with inclusion (Černý, Kurowski, Trapl, 2022) has shown us that the process of its implementation clash with hostile normatives. The Finnish model, on the other hand, informs us that a change of norms facilitates the transformation of the whole educational environment and leads to a system in which competition is systematically suppressed and cooperation encouraged (Lakkala, 2019). Although everyday manifestations of inclusion may appear in different forms in different schools in different countries, we can see that they are growing out of a very similar background, reinforcing different forms of cooperation at the expense of competition.

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