Relational creativity in GenAI mediated learning: reflexive insights from the Digital Maieutic Project

This paper explores how creativity emerges within generative AI (GenAI) learning environments through the Digital Maieutic Project, a higher education initiative integrating Universal Design for Learning (UDL) principles with GenAI and a dialogic chatbot called Socrates, to cultivate creative, adaptive and inclusive learning environments. Drawing on sociomateriality, dialogic pedagogy and wisdom traditions, we explore creativity as a relational, emergent practice. Through thematic analysis of student experiences and project team reflexivity, we identify three interrelated dynamics of relational creativity: generative tension, ethical discernment and shared inquiry. We also explore disorientation as a threshold for learning transformation, arguing for pedagogical practices that attend to complexity, ambiguity and relational integrity.