Groups are ubiquitous in outdoor education and while there is a lot of literature on groups, there is limited examination of the assumptions made about groups and the effects these assumptions have on the practices of outdoor education. I utilise some of Michel Foucault's (1992) tools to investigate literature on outdoor education groups. Understandings of groups in outdoor education are primarily framed as a tension between recognition of individual needs and group needs and the literature is largely concerned with balancing these oppositional forces. Seeing this tension as part of the same dynamic loosens its hold as a foundational "truth" of groups and opens a space to foreground the social context in which outdoor education occurs. It also opens a space to question some of the assumptions individuals bring with them about roles and responsibilities and the impact these have on other group members.