Anti-Oppressive Research in Group Work

Social justice and anti-oppression have emerged as the current force of practice in counseling and group work, however, anti-oppression has rarely been discussed in group work research. We identified critical issues involved in group work research, in relation to researcher/author statuses, participant characteristics, and methodological orientations. To address these issues, we approached anti-oppressive group work research, following Peters and Luke’s Principles of Anti-oppression. We discussed the application of the principles to anti-oppressive group work research, then broached critiques and implications involved in promoting anti-oppression practice, followed by our call for structural changes to facilitate anti-oppressive research in group work.