Dual enrollment (DE) is an increasingly popular reform that allows high school students to enroll in college courses and earn college credit through partnerships between high schools and institutions of higher education. While the DE literature has grown substantially, often absent from this body of work is theoretical engagement with the underlying assumptions that drive DE research and reform. To that end, this chapter presents four perspectives on the purpose of higher education. Employment assumes higher education should sort graduates into the labor market and facilitate social mobility via credentialing. Socialization emphasizes the transmission of broader social, cultural, professional, and institutional norms. Exploration focuses on students’ intellectual, social, and personal growth, in service to the advancement of knowledge. Liberation understands higher education as a site of reproduction and resistance, critiquing social hierarchies while also imagining possibilities for radical democratic transformation. We use these four lenses to map the landscape of DE scholarship over the last decade (2015–2025). Our review illustrates a disproportionate emphasis on employment and socialization, with minimal research from the exploratory and liberatory perspectives. We call for more scholarship from the latter two paradigms to bolster the potential of DE reform to advance educational justice and equity.