This paper draws on a social realist approach knowledge and in light of it constructs three scenarios for the future of education in the next decades. The primary focus of the paper is on one of the most crucial questions facing educational policy makers-the curriculum or the relationship between school and everyday or common sense knowledge. The different possibilities for how the school/nonschool knowledge boundaries might be approached are expressed in three scenarios –referred to in the paper as 'boundaries as given', 'a boundary-less world’ and ‘boundary maintenance as a condition for acquiring powerful knowledge. The educational implications of each scenario are explored for general and vocational education.