The purpose of this critical ethnographic study was to examine the nature and meaning of cultural ecology in relation to preparing scholar-practitioner leaders. The ethnography focused on how the discourses and practices within the disciplinary setting of leadership preparation shape the identity of social scholar-practitioner leaders. The ethnographic study drew from Steward's (2005) writings on cultural ecology and Foucault's (1979, 1980) writings on "regimes of truth" and power/knowledge relationships, to frame a lens for examining the cultural forces at work in and through an ecology of the leadership preparation program. The author examined the cultural ecology of leadership preparation that is defined, in part, by developing scholar-practitioners as democratic, socially just leaders. Also examined is the evolution of a cultural ecology within the Department and the doctoral program.