This article presents a cartography of the field of research in adult learning and education (ALE) via a comparative study of academic production at doctoral level in Spain and Portugal based on a systematic documentary analysis of the summaries of doctoral theses concluded between 2006 and 2018. The aim is to advance the state of the art of research on ALE in recent doctoral theses in both Countries and highlight trends of contemporary knowledge construction in the field of continuing education of adults. Two analytical strategies are applied: (i) a characterisation of the doctoral theses' abstracts by a constructed grid with general and specific categories; and (ii) a quantitative strategy of identifying frequencies in the grid for 18 keywords, 6 frameworks and paradigms and 12 associated to concepts. The mapping of priorities and absences in doctoral research at Higher Education Institutions (HEI) demonstrate that in Spain, there is a tendency to present the role of ALE closely related to assisting individuals and groups to adapt to the educational system, to society and to labour demands. In Portugal an unresolved tension between the adaptation of adults to society through ALE and the conscientization of adults by ALE to transform society remains.