Literacy is a lifelong, socially embedded process that evolves as individuals move through childhood, adolescence, adulthood, and later life. Far from being a fixed skill acquired in early schooling, literacy is shaped by cognitive development, educational opportunity, cultural context, digital environments, and the shifting demands of work, citizenship, and everyday communication. As societies become increasingly mediated by digital technologies, multilingual interaction, and complex information ecosystems, understanding how literacy develops across age groups has become an urgent interdisciplinary challenge.
These transformations raise fundamental questions about equity, access, identity, and the cultural and political conditions that enable people to participate fully in contemporary life.
